‘Like I was a criminal’

Deno Whyte arrived in The Bahamas on October 11 excited about his two-week vacation and plans to reconnect with an old friend.

But almost immediately after the Jamaican disembarked Caribbean Airlines flight BW414 in Nassau, his trip took a sudden and dramatic turn.

Whyte, a father of four, said he was taken from a queue by Bahamian immigration authorities who told him that he would be denied entry because of a request made in writing by their counterparts in Jamaica.

“They said that they have an email that says ‘when you land here we should turn you back [because] they have some questions to ask you’,” he said, quoting a woman who identified herself as an immigration supervisor.

Whyte said he never saw the email.

“I was at the airport [in Jamaica] from 9am and I had to wait three hours to board the plane. I passed immigration; I passed a lot of police – so if they had something to say to me, why didn’t they say it at that time,” he fumed.

The Jamaican police have not responded to questions submitted by The Gleaner about Whyte’s assertions.

Superintendent Eron Samuels, commanding officer for the St James police, who requested on Wednesday that the questions be submitted in writing, declined to comment when contacted by The Gleaner on Thursday.

“If you want to get that information, you would have to request it through CCN,” he said, making reference to the Constabulary Communications Network, the information arm of the police force.

Police spokeswoman, Senior Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay, promised to review the questions submitted by The Gleaner and provide a response. There was no response up to late yesterday.

‘EMBARRASSMENT’

Whyte, who resides in St James, could not imagine the “embarrassment” that awaited him when Bahamian authorities placed him on a Caribbean Airlines flight heading back to his homeland, he recounted during an interview with The Gleaner on Wednesday.

Whyte said when the flight landed in Kingston, there was an announcement over the plane’s intercom system: “Mr Whyte, please declare yourself”.

When he got to the exit door of the aircraft, he said a policeman who was among a group of uniformed cops and immigration officers waiting outside shouted: “This is the guy, see him here!”.

According to Whyte, he was handcuffed and led out of the packed airport under the glare of other passengers and airport workers.

“I was so embarrassed … like I was a criminal. Everyone was just looking until they [cops] pulled something over my head,” he said, referring to the hooded jacket he was allowed to put on after cops briefly removed the handcuffs.

Whyte said he was briefly detained in an airport holding area before being transported to the Central Police Station lock-up in Kingston.

The following day, he said cops transferred him to the Freeport Police Station lock-up where he was held until October 15 when he was released without any criminal charges or being interviewed by detectives.

He said police investigators initially indicated that he was being held on suspicion of fleeing the island with fraudulent documents, but withdrew the claims after conducting their enquiries.

“One policeman said someone wanted to question me, but they didn’t tell him why … they just told him to put on the paper that the CIB [Criminal Investigation Branch] supervisor wants to ask me some questions,” Whyte recounted.

“From the first day I was in lock-up to when I was released, no one has come and said the question that I want to ask you is this or that. No one has given me a reason,” Whyte said of his ordeal between Friday and Tuesday.

RELEASED WITHOUT CHARGE

Donnovan Collins, the attorney hired by Whyte, noted that his client was released from custody after the police were alerted that he had filed a habeas corpus application in the St James Parish Court seeking his immediate release.

“It was after the court started making enquiries of the police that I began to get calls from them about scheduling an interview,” Collins asserted.

“He was eventually released without being formally questioned in the presence of his attorney or charged with any crime, so it’s safe to say that the police caused this man to be deported without probable cause and falsely imprisoned him,” Collins told The Gleaner.

The attorney disclosed that he already has instructions to file a lawsuit against the State and said that will be done before the end of this month.

livern.barrett@gleanerjm.com