Erica Virtue, Staff Reporter
ILLEGAL aliens using Jamaica as a transition port to get to the United States and United Kingdom have devised a new strategy to land them on foreign soil.
The travel documents of some passengers, particularly foreign nationals, are disappearing in flight, often flushed in the toilet or dumped in the garbage, leaving them empty-handed but with adequate grounds to appeal for asylum overseas.
Major John Sinclair, Air Jamaica's director of security, said the foreigners have devised the new strategy to avoid being sent back to Jamaica on the next flight.
"Foreigners are boarding with legal travel documents, but somewhere between departure and arrival documents disappear," said Major Sinclair. "They have been flushed in the toilet. The passenger then claims asylum, and since they arrive without documents, they will be given a hearing overseas."
He said that there are persons who come to Jamaica with legitimate documents, and as far as local immigration officials were concerned, there was no reason to prevent them from entering Jamaica. He said that remnants of the legitimate documents which they left the island with have been found in the toilets. Documents have also been found in Air Jamaica's garbage.
According to him, the illegal aliens favour their chances better appealing for asylum overseas than leaving Jamaica with fraudulent documents. He said Jamaicans, as well as other nationalities, were part of an international ring which traffics in not only drugs, but humans as well.
"There is an international ring in operation. Sometimes our intelligence will tell us that a particular nationality is moving through Jamaica," Major Sinclair said.
Rodney Germain, a United States Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) spokesman in Miami, said each day a new strategy is devised to enter the U.S. Mr. Germain said while he could not disclose some of the security measures employed by INS officials, he confirmed that persons from Jamaica had employed new strategies on a "minutely basis" to enter that country.
"I can confirm that they are arriving without documents and if they claim asylum they are allowed a hearing," he said.
Mr. Germain said when foreigners arrive without documents, and are denied asylum, they are returned to their home country.
"Where they cannot return to their home country, we try to find a third country that will accommodate them," he said.
Where it is found that airlines were negligent in the processing of travellers documents, airlines are fined.
