IS SLAVERY REPEATING ITSELF HERE IN BARBADOS - PLEASE READ BELOW THE PLIGHT OF WEST AFRICAN HOLIDAY MAKERS COMING TO BARBADOS AND OTHER CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES ON A TWO WEEK VACATION AND FOUND THEMSELVES STRANDED AFTER THEIR CHARTERED PLANE NEVER RETURNED FOR THEM. WHAT IS HAPPENING TO THE STRANDED AFRICANS IS A VIOLATION OF THEIR HUMAN RIGHTS. THE MESSAGE BEING PUT OUT IS THAT NO AFRICANS MUST NOT COME TO BARBADOS OR ELSE THEY WILL SUFFER THE INDIGNITY OF BEING INCARCERATED - READ THE STORY BELOW OF WHAT IS HAPPENING TO A GROUP OF STRANDED WEST AFRICAN HOLIDAY MAKERS TO THE ISLAND.

GLOBAL AFRIKAN CONGRESS
BARBADOS CHAPTER

Israel Lovell Foundation
Tel. (246) 437-3113
My Lord's Hill Fax: (246) 437-8216ST MICHAEL
E-Mail:cpmbarbados2@yahoo.com

15 April 2008
URGENT REPORT ON AFRICANS INCARCERATED IN BARBADOS

It is my duty to report that on Tuesday 8th April 2008, the Government of Barbados commenced a "crackdown" on 96 citizens of Ghana and Nigeria who have been stranded in Barbados since their charter flight failed to return for them on the 15th of February 2008.

On Saturday 12th April 2008, a small team of GAC officials visited 32 Ghanaians and Nigerians at the Barbados Defence Force's military camp situate at "Paragon" in the parish of Christ Church.

The camp is enclosed by a high wire fence and is guarded by armed soldiers. We found the 32 West African being held in a fenced area deep within the camp.
Four members of our team, including myself, were afforded the opportunity to speak to the West Africans in private.

The majority of them gave us the following explanation as to how they came to be at the Paragon base:-

1. Having been informed that the Chief Immigration Officer of Barbados wanted to see them at the Immigration Department to "brief" them about efforts being made to return them to Ghana, they made their way to the Immigration Department on Tuesday 8th April 2008.

2. At the Immigration Department, they were informed by the Chief Immigration Officer that the Government had made a decision to place all them in the Defence Force base at "Paragon", pending the arrival of an airplane to take them back to Ghana.

3. They were then taken into custody by Immigration and armed Police Officers, and were initially taken to the Barbados Port, where they were subjected to a medical examination.

4. They were taken from the Port to their respective homes by Immigration and Police Officers, and were ordered to collect their personal belongings.
5. And finally, they were transported to the Paragon Army base by the Immigration Department, accompanied by Police vehicles with sirens blaring.


2. One of the Ghanaians- a Mr. Patrick Adjei- recounted how Immigration Officers came to his home at 2 o'clock in the morning and took him into custody.
All of the West Africans at Paragon felt that they were under detention, and confirmed that they could not leave the precincts of the Army base. They also told us that they had been warned by the authorities that if they went over and beyond the perimeter fence of the base that they would be subjected to "sniper gun fire".

At one stage, I passed around a pen and a sheet of paper and asked them to indicate which of them had Barbadian homes to which they could return, and which ones needed us to arrange accommodation for them with Barbadian families.

It was while this exercise was taking place that an Immigration Officer and two soldiers entered the room and requested that we leave the base.

The reality now is that 32 West Africans, none of whom has committed any criminal offence in Barbados, are incarcerated in a military "prison", and have been in this condition for one week now.

We also subsequently learnt about a few other West Africans who are in the custody of the Immigration Department at another non-military facility. One of these detainees - a Ghanian woman - was sexually assaulted while in detention; and the matter is now engaging the attention of the Royal Barbados Police Force.
The Barbados Chapter of the GAC has obtained offers and commitments from numerous Barbadians to accommodate the West African detainees at their homes, but the Government perversely refuses to allow these, our African brothers and sisters, to return to the bosom of Barbadian civil society pending the arrival of an airplane to take them home.

The Government publicly insists that they are not deporting these stranded Ghanaians and Nigerians, yet they continue to deprive them of their freedom and to hold them against their will. And although they have been incarcerated for a week they have not been afforded the opportunity to speak to the News Media to tell their side of the story: officialdom has been speaking for them and putting words in their mouths.

Over 60 of the stranded West Africans remain at large in the Barbadian society. Because of the horrific events of Tuesday 8th April 2008 many of them are now too scared to go into the Immigration Authorities.

The GAC is convinced that if these were stranded Europeans or North Americans that they would not be treated in this manner.

We now appeal to all agencies that can play a role in coming to the assistance and rescue of our incarcerated guests to make the effort to do so.

DAVID A. COMISSIONG
Ambassador Plenipotentiary