Bajan immigration sees Jamaican problem

(Barbados Nation) Immigration authorities say while the problem of illegal Guyanese appears to be coming under control, they are now trying to come to terms with an influx of Jamaicans, including several young women willing to get involved in marriages of convenience.

“Every day, we are dealing with somebody who is trying to get in. They are meeting the men over the Internet and are coming here to marry them,” said Senator Harry Husbands, parliamentary secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, with responsibility for Immigration, who informed the SUNDAY SUN of a particular case in which a Jamaican woman came here on three different occasions to marry three different men.

A senior Immigration source, who requested anonymity, also commented on the situation, saying that since 2009 when scores of illegal Guyanese started to leave Barbados on account of an Immigration amnesty, they had noticed an influx of Jamaicans.

The official did not give any figures, but said while the Immigration Department had been trying to prevent the Guyanese situation from recurring, it had seen an increase in the number of Jamaicans arrested for trying to smuggle illegal drugs into the island.