And all the opportunities for enterprise that come along with human smuggling has created rancor in the Immigration Department - sources tell us.
But, what's really troubling the rank and file is the lack of opportunity for promotion to the Department's most senior posts. The posts of Director of Refugees and Director of Nationality and Passports have been vacant since late last year - and no one from the inside the department has been tapped to fill them. And it seems they won't. Yesterday we asked the Minister about it:
Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"The director of refugee will be fill fairly shortly. At passport and nationality, we are still undergoing an evaluation and an assessment. We have to get the right person there and I will accept that as a result of those vacancies primarily in passport and nationality there has been some frustration from the staff saying who is in charge and so on and so forth. We have spoken to candidates who we thought would be good candidates to fill the position and for varying reasons some of them have not work out. I understand from the CEO two nights ago that one of the persons who we really wanted and who had said no, has in fact contacted him and say listen, I'm rethinking. Long and short of it I can assure the staff and general public that we will fill that post as quickly as we can, but we have to do the right thing."
Jules Vasquez
"I take it you don't want to fill it with anyone from the immigration department. You want to pick people from outside."
Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs
"We are going to do the right thing."
