Copa Airlines Flight Flagged Jamaica Security Risk

Copa Airlines Flights Flagged Jamaica Security Risk

January 9th, 2009 |By Marvia Lawes in: Missioner Reflections | No Comments »

[Photo: Marvia Lawes - Shadow of airplane on sea approaching Norman Manley International]

I arrived on a full Copa Airlines flight in Kingston, Jamaica 4 days before Christmas. The lines to Immigration were as long as expected; and I was anxious to get my suitcases and get out of the airport. I did not linger in getting my bags off the carousel and as usual, dashed for the nothing to declare line.

I joined one of the 2 nothing to declare lines with a young woman beside me in the other. We didn’t know each other but we both came in on the same Copa flight. We waited in line behind two White guys. The guy in her line got through before the one ahead of me, so she moved to the counter. As I waited my turn, I looked over in time to catch the flick of a wrist as the bored looking Customs Officer waved the young woman away saying, “Maam, go over to line 5 we are not processing Copa flights over here”.

“Here” was the line we had both rushed to get into hoping to beat the crowd. I looked over at line 5 and wondered if I heard right. It was filled with persons with boxes and multiple bags who were obviously commercial shoppers coming from Panama. I thought this “Customs Officer mussi mad!”

[Photo by Marvia Lawes - Greater Portmore, Jamaica ]

Since my guy was still taking his time, and there was no one else in line behind “Maam”, I went over to the Officer and told him I heard some of what he said to the young woman and that I came in on Copa as well. I wanted to know why we had to join another line. Looking both embarrassed and annoyed he snapped, ‘procedure Maam’. Not satisfied, or put off by his face I persisted in seeking a better answer. None came. And I wasn’t budging.

The young woman, buoyed by my stubbornness returned protesting loudly that the 2 White guys who were at the counter ahead of us came in on the same flight with us. Why were they allowed through while we were being sent to another line? The officer who had waved her away, had by now grown hostile. The other, refused to join the argument and, turned his head away.

Mr. Procedure dismissed us with – “Listen Maam, we are just doing what we have been told to do. Ok. Locals coming in on Copa, go to line 5. Moreover, you have your fellow Jamaicans to thank for that.”

At that pronouncement, my blood started to boil. Oh yes. I am a Jamaican and a proud one at that. But discrimination of any sort doesn’t sit well with me, neither does stereotyping, and certainly NOT in my own country. Don’t tell me that suddenly, ONLY Jamaicans coming in on a Copa flight are likely drug couriers.

Well actually no. Only the ones who happen to look like this young lady and I. We were not wearing suits like the Black Jamaican man who sat beside me on the flight in. He was decked out in his business suit and he was not sent to Line 5. But there we were in jeans and top and surely enough we fit the bill of – you guessed it…. ‘Chrismus drug-mule’! I was vexed I tell you.

[Photo by Marvia Lawes - Greater Portmore Causeway and container station]

The enraged young woman, who like me was objecting to being sent to this crowded commercial line, went to speak with a senior customs officer standing next to Line 5. The senior advised her that the lucrative trade and trafficking of cocaine is booming in Panama who shares borders with Columbia. Thus drug trafficking between Panama and Jamaica on Copa Airlines flights has caused Copa’s flights to be classified as ‘high risk’.

In the majority of cases, the drug couriers were Jamaicans, and mostly women. I recalled when I read the (erroneous) story from Radio Jamaica about Jamaican Port Workers for Panama Canal, there were several links to reports of the increasing numbers of drug related arrests at Norman Manley International in Kingston.

Now after reading that, it didn’t occur to me that I was one of the ‘locals’ who have my fellow Jamaicans to thank for their overly enterprising spirit. There are around 41 such enterprising Jamaicans in jail in Panama right now.

The procedure as I said then, and repeat here publicly is nothing but plain discrimination and pure rubbish. I and fellow Jamaican travelers like myself who have legitimate reasons to be in the nothing to declare line should not be herded into some other line while non-Jamaicans walk through freely. Even if it is true that investigations show that Jamaicans are the ones transporting the drugs –search everybody.

[ Photo by Marvia Lawes - Ship in Kingston Harbour, Jamaica]

So I’m not protesting against being searched. I’m protesting against a foolish premise which bred a foolish method and which affects upstanding Jamaican citizens who do not wear suits. Yes, we are honest people too. Yes really! You should have seen the face of the customs officer when she saw my passport and I answered her questions. I could tell she was embarassed. Well she had her fellow Customs Officers to thank for that!

So I’m saying, Jamaica customs do better than that. Search everybody! If you don’t want to subject ‘overseas visitors’ or ‘business-suit-clad-Jamaicans’ to the inconvenience of a search, then you should also make the exception for Jamaicans who have legitimate reasons to be in the nothing to declare line. Look at our documents, ask us questions, and if in doubt – search away. I don’t mind. Just don’t perpetuate, in our homeland, the same stereotypes we suffer overseas.

And I’m saying to Copa Airlines - for the astronomical airfares to Jamaica from Panama; you can afford to tighten your security checks in Panama. So please clean up your act too!

And to any drug-smuggling Jamaicans who might read this Blog. Trust me, it is not worth it my friend. So leave the drug trade alone and find a different route to make a living. It is better to be poor and free. So many lives are being destroyed, so many of our children and youth are being brutally murdered. You can’t even live with yourself. Remember God naah sleep!

Hoping for some positive changes in 2009.
Marvia

Read stories on radiojamaica.com (unsure of accuracy) of Jamaican passengers on Copa Airlines trafficking cocaine from Panama to Jamaica in 2008:

June 19. 2008 – Cocaine found in sheets
June 26. 2008 – Liquid cocaine and cocaine in cocoa butter cream
July 22. 2008 – cocaine in microwave with fake compartment
November 7.2008 – cocaine in clothing

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