Dear Editor, Re: Persistent Harassment by Immigration at Cheddie Jagan International Airport, Timehri My name is Ronald J. Daniels.

I am presently a law student at Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago. I have persistently suffered abuse and humiliation by the conduct of the Immigration Authority at Cheddie Jagan Internation Airport, Timehri, my two most recent encounters being the worst. There is a man with the same name as myself who has been engaged in criminal practices and was wanted by the authorities for some years. There is an article titled Wanted man recaptured two years after escape which appears in the December 21, 2008 edition of Kaiteur News giving a brief history of the criminal activities engaged in by this person and his subsequent apprehension. My misfortune began in 2006 when I first traveled outside of Guyana, at that time I was a law student at the University of Guyana. I was naturally surprised by the suggestion that I was a wanted criminal and the commotion this created. Upon my return I was treated to a similar welcome. Every time subsequent to 2006 that I have traveled my reception has been the same. I am detained for some time while the attending immigration officer calls his or her supervisor and I am made a spectacle to a ready audience of travellers. I have always protested this treatment, but to no avail. I traveled home on December 14, 2012 for the Christmas holidays and was accompanied by my two year old nephew. I deliberately secured a forward place in the immigration line as my nephew was exhausted and agitated from the flight. The line behind us was rather lengthy. When we were through with immigration everyone else was long gone and making their way through customs. The immigration officer was kind enough to expedite our passage through customs after I protested. I left Guyana on January 3, 2013 to resume school. My embarrassment was pronounced. I was again traveling with my two year old nephew and was once again detained by immigration. Again, there was a lengthy line behind me, a line which was gone by the time immigration was through with me. I was screened by the same officers who screened me upon my arrival. Naturally everyone was looking at me with skepticism; this was compounded by the fact that my hair is in dreadlocks and I was invited to a side desk with a computer where I was asked to take off my hat and flick back my locks

and turn from one side to the other while the immigration officers squinted their eyes at the computer screen. It did not help that I was wearing and produced for closer inspection my Hugh Wooding Law School Badge. I informed the officers on both of the most recent occasions that the man has been apprehended and that the article appeared in Kaiteur News. They were clear in their view that my words have no value. I insisted that their system should be modified to spare me this prolonged abuse, to which they responded that it is not their business to do so but it is my interest so I should report it to the police station. It takes little imagination to appreciate the stigma that would be attached to a rasta man who is detained by immigration for a lengthy period while commuters are not privy to muted conversations. If this were not sufficient, flight BW 527 which was scheduled to leave Guyana at 9:05 am left roughly about 9:35 am consequent upon my detention and the flight attendants were inquiring on the plane as to who is Daniels. They greeted me upon my entry onto the plane with the fact that the flight was stalled because of me, albeit this was not said with any hint of confrontation. As I scurried to find my seat I was clearly the subject of angry looks and questioning eyes. I had planned to utilize the services of the duty-free shops at the airport but for obvious reasons I could not. It pains me that I am an upright citizen who is trying to better myself in the interest of serving my countrymen but am criminalized or at least made to publicly appear as a criminal while I engage that endeavor. I am disappointed that my country can be so lax in matters this serious and permit such laxity to persist for so long. I am tired of being harassed by the immigration authority and have expended all my tolerance of this abuse.

Respectfully yours, Ronald J. Daniels.