THE SCANDAL OF IMMIGRATION DYSFUNCTION

Immigration officers in the junior ranks are widely disgruntled. There are three classes of immigration officers: 2014, 2016 and 2017.  They have not been confirmed in their posts, although all of them are working on the job as fully trained officers.  The public service rules say that officer should be confirmed after one year on probation.  This has not been done.  So two weeks ago, the Ministry released a set of confirmations and promotions but almost immediately it was clear that it was not adequate. They cherry picked those who were approved and the result is most people say that the approvals were based on who was perceived to be PLP or FNM.  The FNMs got though, the PLPs did not.  The Minister of Immigration Ellsworth Johnson does to pay attention to the Department and it has deteriorated on his watch.  The FNM is set to pay a heavy price on advanced poll day 9 September 2021 from Immigration Officers as a result of it.