Tighter screening as ‘quarantine’ passengers try to collect cargo
Published:Wednesday | April 8, 2020 | 12:00 AM
Damion Mitchell, Integration Editor
The Jamaica Customs Agency is tightening the screening of travellers seeking to clear domestic shipments as some of them are reportedly turning up at the ports before completing their mandatory 14-day quarantine.
The quarantine was imposed for travellers arrived in Jamaica between March 18 and 23 as part containment measures amid the coronavirus in Jamaica..
But according to Selina Clarke Graham, the customs agency’s senior director for Kingston operations, some travellers have even been foregoing their passenger duty allowance to avoid having to show their passports in a bid to hide their travel history.
“When they do that they put us at risk and they put the general public at risk,” said Clarke Graham on Wednesday during an online forum at the Jamaica Customs today.
She said there have been around six cases in recent weeks.
"We have had situations where we have had to call the police and the Ministry of Health," she later told The Gleaner.
Clarke Graham said too that, in the meantime, customs officers have been doing more detailed interviews with people turning up at the ports to collect cargo.
But isn’t electronic technology available to flag recent travellers who should be in quarantine?
Chief information officer Andre Williams said yes.
“We do have online services,” he said, noting that the customs and immigration forms were now being integrated and will soon become mandatory.
He says the list of passengers who should be in quarantine has also been generated and is being used to screen people who should not be allowed through the cargo ports because they should be in quarantine.
In the meantime, Clarke Graham is suggesting that shippers in quarantine contact their brokers to clear the shipments on their behalf.
She says they can also authorise other individuals to act on their behalf.
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