Minister of Home Affairs and Information, Wilfred Abrahams, examining one of the document magnifying readers along with German Liaison Officer, Stephan Kaldasch, Chief Immigration Officer (Ag), Margaret Inniss and Executive Director (Ag), of CARICOM IMPACS, Lt. Col. Michael Jones. (T. Barker/BGIS)

Officers at the Barbados Immigration Department continue to receive training to aid them in carrying out their duties.

That is according to Chief Immigration Officer (Ag), Margaret Inniss, who was speaking during a hand-over ceremony of 25 document magnifying readers from the Federal Republic of Germany, this morning at the CARICOM IMPACS facility.

Ms. Inniss noted that training is critical to the development of Barbados and particularly in the Immigration Department:  She said: “We are in a new drive and phase of developing our officers so that we can make Barbados more competitive as we protect our borders.  As we speak, there is now training for the second version of the online ED card and thus far, we have trained about 80 persons, and that includes our valued stakeholders in the airline industry [and] all stakeholders who are playing a part in tourism.”

She added, however, that as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, officers had not been afforded the opportunity to “go out and train” as usual and “a new methodology” in terms of using tools in-house to train was being used. 

Ms. Inniss expressed thanks to CARICOM IMPACS for going beyond the call of duty to ensure that officers are trained in the protection of Barbados’ borders and for creating relationships that assist in the carrying out of their duties such as the donation of 25 document magnifying readers which will “enhance” the service provided by the department and Barbados, in general. 

Minister of Home Affairs and Information, Wilfred Abrahams, who has responsibility for the Immigration Department, congratulated the Immigration Department for the “wonderful job” it has been doing over the years and pointed out that its quality and delivery of service was worth aspiring to by other government departments. 

sheena.forde-craigg@barbados.gov.bb

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