So is it a matter of trust - or, as the case may be, distrust? That is, does the Minister not trust Immigration officers to hew to the letter of the law?
That's the distinct vibe we picked up yesterday - so we asked him about it:
Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"No one has ask me for a meeting that I haven't had. Probably they want to meet with me and I will happily do so. Listen, in any organization there are differences, personality clashes and it's not easy to manage a ministry in which there are risks. You see this permanent residence card situation, there are other things that we see, the smuggling, its human smuggling. Its a major issue for us and when people are disciplinarians and insisting that the letter of the law is complied with there are people who don't like it, but we have to as best we can in order to protect the integrity of this country to ensure that we minimize as best we can the abuse of migration, the abuse of people in the migration process to enforce the law and to insist that our workers, our employees are officers enforced the law and to call them to account where we see something happening here or there. And so yes, there have been differences, yes, there was a surprise sickout, but I think speaking for myself, I will insist on the law and the procedures and the processes being complied with."
Jules Vasquez
"It seems that there is a level of distrust in rank and file immigration officers to carry out the law."
Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"I think that's' putting it too strongly Jules. Ahm, as I say and I don't want to cause aspersions on anybody, but there are some people who performed their jobs a lot better than others and there are those who are weak in their performance. The public service is not the private sector where you simply say here is your letter and here is your cheque and don't come back on Monday. There is a very elaborate process as you are aware if you want to even report or discipline somebody. We have excellent officers, we have first rate officers and we do have officers who don't performed to the level that we would want them to perform and it impacts the delivery of service to the general public. I will not deny that there is some disgruntlement. I will not deny that some people are unhappy, but they must do the right thing."
Reports tell us the staff has been calling on the Director Debra Baptist Estrada for a meeting but without success.
