Dear Editor,
I arrived at the Cheddi Jagan Airport, Timehri at about 11:40 pm on the night of 17th, 2022 after a tiring traveling session for adults and children from Jamaica. In transit in Trinidad and arriving home in Guyana was a painful experience for children at the immigration clearing facility.
It is known that the world over onboarding aircraft, babies, and small children along with their parents are given priority to the board, and rightfully so. However, I must be fair; Guyana like other countries caters to persons in wheelchairs but not to babies at the immigration facilities. This is from my regular travels and observation.
On the 17th of August, 2022 we departed Jamaica at about 4 pm and were in transit in Trinidad for quite a while, we boarded Caribbean Airlines to Guyana by which time adults, babies, and small children were burnt out. Before us was the arrival of JetBlue and several passengers who also had babies and small children who were crying and
I spoke to a female Officer in Charge, she expressed that she could not make that decision to give babies priority and pointed out a gentleman to whom I spoke about the matter. The gentleman said it was a decision to be made at the discretion of the Immigration Officers themselves. I then asked to speak with the Immigration Officer in the cubicle, I was told I could not. I was then directed to seek assistance at the foreign nationals’ line as JetBlue passengers had already accompanied the Caricom National Section.
I recall when we had the Cricket World Cup Immigration Officers were trained to process people within three to five minutes. This aggressiveness in processing visitors or arrivals should have the same momentum and aggressiveness in the clearing of passengers, which I recommend.
I wish to recommend that in the same manner that we have wheelchair passengers being given priority to clear immigration, persons with small children and babies be given the same kind of courtesy. Children get agitated and scared, they could develop anxiety which may cause them to cry and scream, as was the case on the 17th of August, 2023 whilst I was traveling.
It is my hope and prayer that the relevant authorities will see this letter and give thoughtful consideration to implementing a system to assist these parents. Of course, if there is a mother and/or father with a baby or small child and they have ten or fifteen other members of the family those other ten or fifteen members should join the regular line, otherwise, it will take forever to process them through immigration.
The aim here is not to attack or critique anyone or any system but to edify. I hope to recommend improvements be made to the current system. The goal would be, to make the process easier for parents with children to clear the immigration facility at our airport and save damaging our children with anxiety.
Sincerely,
Hajji Dr. Roshan Khan Snr