BASSETERRE, St. Kitts -- THE landmark ruling by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the Shanique Myrie case, where she was awarded BD$77 240 from the Barbadian government for wrongful denial of entry into that country, is a lesson for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in how nationals of CARICOM member states should be treated at each other’s border.
Although the CCJ stopped short of ruling on October 4 that Myrie, a 25-year-old Jamaican national, was denied entry because of discrimination against her based solely on her nationality, public opinion has already been formed that that was the case.
“The liability of the State of Barbados with respect to this breach, given its seriousness and the causal link between it and the damages Ms. Myrie incurred, has been established. The Court is entitled to and does award her both her pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages as the combined amount is substantial. The Court awards these sums in the currency of the State with the liability to pay, i.e., the State of Barbados,” the judgment signed by President of the CCJ, the Right Hon. Mr. Justice Dennis Byron, along with six other judges, stated.
The CCJ ruling comes at a time when the importance of regional integration is being touted by the CARICOM, which makes the judgment on one hand damning, but on the other, refreshing. It is damning because Myrie’s case highlights some of the obstacles that the Caribbean Community faces in promoting regionalism, and yet refreshing, for the reason that Myrie’s case has paved the way for other CARICOM nationals to break the silence about the derogatory treatment meted out to them at borders and to stand up for the equal rights and justice that the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas outlines.
Article 45 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas of 2001 states that “member states commit themselves to the goal of free movement of their nationals within the community”. Also, Article 46 (2b) states that “member states shall establish appropriate legislative, administrative and procedural arrangements to provide for movement of Community nationals into and within their jurisdiction without harassment or the imposition of impediment.”
According to Myrie, Immigration officials in the ‘Land of the flying fish’, subjected her to a painful and humiliating body cavity search, held her overnight in an unsanitary detention cell and deported her to Jamaica the next day - charges Barbados has denied. They claimed that Myrie was untruthful about the identity of her Barbadian host. No drugs were found on Myrie and someone was at the airport to pick her up. She was given no reason for her denial of entry into Barbados.
Myrie’s case points to a problem within the CARICOM that has worked against meaningful integration and movement of people, goods and skills within the ‘one space’.
Territorialism, xenophobia, country profiling and stigmatisation, and bigger-smaller island discrimination have all worked to prevent the goal of the ‘one space’ of which we call the CARICOM.
The West Indies Federation of 1958-1962 collapsed in part because of territorialism, where the bigger countries of the Federation, such as Jamaica and Trinidad, felt “superior” to the smaller islands. In the end, the politics of the embryonic Federation were wrecked by struggles between the federal government and the provincial governments.
The Shanique Myrie case has resurrected some of the very same ‘narrow-minded’ territorial attitudes of the past and has highlighted the very same problems that are still with us today.
Jamaicans and Vincentians are stereotyped within CARICOM as being notorious drug-traffickers; Guyanese are viewed with contempt; Antiguans are famous for telling ‘foreigners’ that “me no bang no water fi cum ya”; and people from the OECS are called “small-island” people. These are just a few of the ways in which regionalism is defeated.
It is the hope that the ruling in the Shanique Myrie case would be a lesson to border officials within the Caribbean Community about how they should treat CARICOM nationals with dignity and not by their whims and fancy, and that others like Myrie will speak out when they are violated and demeaned.
The CCJ ruled that nationals of CARICOM member states are entitled to hassle-free entry and any CARICOM country refusing entry must allow the person to contact a lawyer, a family member or some other representative and they must be provided with reasons for the refusal.
