Immigration Ministry Clears Up Bottleneck at PGIA

Travelers at the Philip Goldson International Airport faced major delays on Monday due to long lines, all because only one immigration officer was on duty. Chief Executive Officer Tanya Santos from the Ministry of Immigration explained that several officers were out, some due to illness or maternity leave. Adding to the chaos, a malfunctioning computer created a bottleneck, sparking rumors of a staff sickout. Earlier today, Santos assured News Five that the situation has been resolved and that administrative changes have been made to prevent future issues.

 

On the phone: Tanya Santos, CEO, Ministry of Immigration

“There are some officers who are sick and, you know, people get sick so we can’t really say that there’s a sickout.  There are a few officers who are out sick.  We have an officer, for example, who is out on maternity leave as well.  So there are a number of officers that are not at the airport at the moment, however, we still do have a compliment of officers there who are sufficient to keep the lines going.  What actually happened is that it’s Terminal One where there was one officer and the reality is that there are only two booths there at Terminal One and one of the computer systems there was not functioning and so, effectively, only one officer was able to work.  I understand that they had sent passengers over from Terminal Two to Terminal One, not realizing that there was only one officer there.  So the others were there at the other terminal but the number of passengers was a lot, so they had to shift things around.  And that is what happened, the line became long because there was only one officer of two at that terminal who was able to process the crowd that was there. There have been changes recently with a new port commander and every officer in charge brings their own style of management, their own ways of doing things and so there have been some changes that have been occurring and we have been trying to manage those changes and so it takes time.  Some people also take time to adapt to changes and so these are some of the issues that need to be ironed out and that we’re looking at and addressing. But in that particular case yesterday, it was a matter of one of two booths.”