The Quarantine Act - What you need to know

Today’s Legal Scoop is an article by attorney-at-law Ruel Gibson and is timely, as it provides readers with useful information on the provisions of The Quarantine Act.

With Jamaica having several confirmed cases of COVID-19, it is instructive to take a look at The Quarantine Act and to understand the powers available to the Government by law. The Act has been around since 1951 but since then there have been some amendments.

THE QUARANTINE AUTHORITY

The Act, under Section 3, authorises the health minister to set up a Quarantine Authority, which shall consist of a chairman and four other members. The minister shall appoint the chief medical officer or a principal medical officer to be the chairman; and four other members, one of whom shall be representative of the interests of shipping and another of whom shall be representative of the interests of airways.

The Quarantine Authority may order direct special measures to be taken where it forms the view that an emergency exists. Health officers, including health officers who visit ships arriving in the island, also operate under the instructions of the Quarantine Authority.

POWERS OF THE JCF

The Quarantine Act, under Section 12, bestows wide ranging powers on the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF).

It reads as follows:

12 (1) It shall be the duty of every constable to enforce (using force if necessary) compliance with this Act and with any order, instruction or condition lawfully made, given or imposed by any officer or other person under the authority of this Act; and for such purpose any constable may board any ship or aircraft and may enter any premises without a warrant.

12 (2) Any constable may arrest without a warrant any person whom he has reasonable cause to believe to have committed any offence against this Act.

OFFENCES AND PENALTIES

Section 10 deals with the offences and penalties under the Act. In summary, it provides that any person who:

a) Refuses to answer lawful questions or requests for information under the Act;

b) Refuses to do any or omits to carry out any lawful order under the Act;

c) Assaults or obstructs any officer or person exercising authority under the Act or attempts to bribe said person or takes a bribe shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction before a resident magistrate to a fine of five hundred thousand dollars or to imprisonment with hard labour for six months or to both such fine and imprisonment.

THE REGULATIONS

The minister is also empowered under Section 7 to pass regulations, as respects to the whole or any part of the island, including the ports.

The regulations contained in the First Schedule to the Act were passed in 1973 and are called the Quarantine (Maritime) Regulations. Given the recent news about cruise ships being turned away/interrogated at our ports, due to coronavirus fears, this week’s column will take a look at parts two and three of these regulations, which deal with ships arriving from foreign ports and ships in quarantine. Under these regulations, the minister may, by order, authorise any officer or person or class of officer or person to act as a visiting officer or as an authorised officer for the purposes of the regulations.

SHIP TO PROVIDE DECLARATION OF HEALTH

The regulations states, amongst other things, that the master of a ship approaching the island from a foreign port shall ascertain the state of health of all persons on board and shall prepare and sign a declaration of health. If a ship’s surgeon is carried on board, he shall countersign the declaration.

Regulation 6 states that every ship arriving in the island from a foreign port, shall be visited on arrival in the island by the visiting officer and the master shall surrender to the visiting officer the declaration of health and present to him for inspection any other ship’s papers which the visiting officer may desire to inspect.

The visiting officer is authorised to ask all such questions as he may deem advisable for the execution of these regulations.

PERMISSION

No person other than a person acting in execution of these Regulations shall, without the general or special permission of the health officer, leave a ship coming from a foreign port. Before any person other than a person acting in the execution of these Regulations leaves a ship arriving in the island from a foreign port, he shall furnish all such information as may reasonably be required by the visiting officer or by an authorised officer.

According to Regulation 8, a visiting officer may grant pratique (permission to have dealings with a port) to a ship on visiting it, if he is satisfied from the declaration of health and otherwise that during the voyage, or if the voyage has lasted longer than six weeks, during the six weeks immediately preceding arrival:

(a) There has been no death or case of illness on board suspected to be due to infectious disease;

(b) There has been no plague or undue mortality among rats or mice on board;

(c) The ship has not called at an infected port;

(d) The ship was not overcrowded or in an insanitary condition.

QUARANTINING OF A SHIP

If the visiting officer is not a health officer and is not satisfied with the information obtained under Regulation 8- (i) he may refuse pratique and thereupon the ship shall be deemed to be in quarantine and the visiting officer shall immediately inform the health officer of such refusal and the health officer shall forthwith visit the ship and thereupon Regulation 6 shall apply as though the ship had not been previously visited.

After making his own enquiries, the heath officer may then go on to issue or refuse pratique in accordance with the provisions of the Act.

A visiting officer may give such directions as he may deem expedient to the master of a ship in quarantine for securing the detention of the ship pending the granting of pratique, including directions (if he thinks fit) to take the ship to a specified mooring station, anchorage or berthing place generally or specially approved by the harbour master (or other appropriate authority) for the use of ships in quarantine. A visiting officer may also place on board any ship in quarantine such quarantine guards as he may think necessary.

It behoves us all, especially in this season of COVID-19, to be au fait with the provisions of The Quarantine Act.

n Ruel Gibson is an attorney-at-law. Email feedback to editorial@gleanerjm.com and shena.stubbs@gleanerjm.com or Twitter: @shenastubbs