T&T authorities launch search for J'can man who escaped airport security

The Trinidadian authorities are yet to identify the Jamaican man who they claim escaped immigration and airline security and left the Piarco International Airport yesterday.

Reports are that the alleged Jamaican national, who is said to be in his early 20s, had arrived late Friday on a Caribbean Airlines flight from Kingston. However, he was refused entry into the twin island republic.

Trinidad media report that the man has pend­ing drug-re­lat­ed mat­ters in Ja­maica and at­tempt­ed to en­ter Trinidad previously on three occasions.

When he attempted to re-enter the country on Friday, he was stopped by immigration authorities and placed in an immigration detention holding room at the airport. 

 How­ev­er, when im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cers went to check on him early yesterday, he could not be found.

The Guardian reports that of­fi­cers lat­er dis­cov­ered that the man had re­moved a ceil­ing tile in the roof of the room and climbed in­side the area.

The Air­ports Au­thor­i­ty of T&T (AATT), in a statement late yesterday, confirmed that the Ja­maican man had escaped from Im­mi­gra­tion and air­line se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cials and left the air­port.

The au­thor­i­ty ad­vis­es that by law, peo­ple who were re­fused en­try by the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion be­come the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the air­line. 

The AATT said that it was not in a po­si­tion to dis­cuss se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures be­ing put in place to pre­vent a re­cur­rence of this sit­u­a­tion.

We want to hear from you! Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169, email us at editors@gleanerjm.com or onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com.