The Immigration Department should be moving into a new headquarters in the not too distant future.
That is according to Senator Darcy Boyce, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office, who has responsibility for Immigration. Addressing participants of the Joint National Border Security Training Workshop for Immigration and Customs Officers at the Barbados Defence Force yesterday morning, hosted by the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security, the European Union and the United States Customs and Border Protection, Senator Boyce, assuring the immigration officials present that providing them with a comfortable working environment remains a priority for Government, indicated that work on their new home, to be located at the Princess Alice Corporate Centre, is at an advanced stage. He added that the work is expected to be complete by August this year, and is being facilitated through funding from the Caribbean Development Bank.
The new Immigration Headquarters will feature enhanced security protocol and facilities; all new furnishings; external door and windows to be impact resistant up to a Category 3 hurricane; covered reserved parking spaces for staff; onsite high density storage facilities; LED lighting throughout; and integrated indoor air quality monitoring units,” he informed the gathering.
Boyce further disclosed that in addition to the provision of the new headquarters, work is ongoing to improve the information and communication technology systems and to convert the paper files to digital systems to improve processing, improve communications with other agencies, and improve data sharing. He indicated that quite a bit of work has also already been concluded, with the assistance of Compete Caribbean on the development of procedures manuals for the Immigration Department, to ensure certainty and consistency of procedures in all matters.
“We are also working on reviews of immigration policy in several areas and expect that the results of these policy reviews will be shared before the end of this year. Effort is also being directed to developing time standards for processing various matters,” he added.
The Immigration Minister further stated that once all that work has been completed, the policies, procedures and expected time standards will be published. His comments came as he said that they will also move to publish immigration statistics in all areas on a regular monthly or quarterly basis as necessary. (JRT)