Journalist ordered to leave Grenada

Passport (File photo)

By Linda Straker 
 
ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, February 15, 2008 - Jamaican journalist Tenesha Thomas has been given until today (February 15) to leave Grenada.

Thomas, was yesterday ordered to leave the country within 24 hours since immigration officials claim that an error was made on the date stamped on her passport. Thomas had a return ticket for the first week in March and showed officials that her passport was stamped until August 2, 2008.  She was detained by four immigration officials on the basis that she had over-stayed her time in the country.

`The date was meant to be the eighth of the second month, rather than the second of the eighth month,` said Head of Immigration Jessmon Prince.

The move has been decried by the Media Workers Association of Grenada, which said yesterday they are deeply concerned about the shabby treatment meted out to Thomas.

`We feel that it is an unfair ploy for a professional journalist or for that manner anyone to be forced out of the country in the manner in which Miss Thomas has been, on the grounds that an immigration officer imputed a wrong date on her passport,` said a statement from the Association.

The group also claimed they are suspicious about the circumstances surrounding Thomas's forced departure from Grenada and the refusal by immigration officials to exercise their discretion in this matter. And they added that they are annoyed and dissatisfied with the explanation offered by authorities in making their case for her expulsion from the island, particularly since it has emerged and has been admitted by immigration that a clear error was made on their part.

Noting the refusal by the authorities to use their discretion, which they can do in this manner, the Association said its concerns are not just to be of concern to those in Grenada but for colleagues in the entire Caribbean region.

`We are also satisfied that the immigration agents themselves would have acted differently if they were not under specific instructions. In this case we have no choice but to sympathize with the immigration department for the difficult position with which they have been placed,` added the Association’s statement.

Thomas, formerly of the Gleaner newspaper in Kingston was on special assignment for CARIBUPATE, a regional news agency based in Hollywood, Florida, and owned by Grenadian-born journalist Hamlet Mark.

Thomas has been CARIBUPDATE's special Caribbean political correspondent and has been sent on assignment in St George's to cover the build-up to general elections there.  Her expulsion comes in light of the free move of travel for skilled persons, journalists and media workers under the Caribbean Single Market Economy, which went in to effect in 2006 and of which Grenada is a member.

The Free Movement of Skilled Persons, arises from an agreed CARICOM policy that was originally separate but related to the original Protocol II of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.  The agreed policy, called The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Free Movement of Persons Act, is now enacted legislation in all the CSME Member States. It provides for the free movement of certain categories of skilled labor, but according to the policy there is to be eventual free movement of all persons, originally by 2008, but now by 2009. (CaribWorldNews)