HM Customs makes ‘unpopular’ move to protect VI
One such move has been described as “unpopular” by Assistant Commissioner of Enforcement, Mr Clinton Romney.
According to him, everyone coming into the territory by sea is now required to present himself/herself in person to immigration authorities.
This is one of the most recent measures implemented by HM Customs. “We hear about the amount of guns coming through St Thomas, if we read the papers, if you look at the media sites, so it’s a concern for us.”
Noting that while the VI is a tourist destination, Mr Romney said there are a lot of locals travelling to and through the USVI hence HM Customs had to make the decision as “unpopular” as it may be.
He said that in the past only the captains of boats were required to disembark and take with him all the passports of his passengers. “Now everyone is required to present themselves with their passports and their belongings.”
Challenges
Mr Romney explained that in terms of enforcement, one of the challenges the department has been grappling with is boaters entering the territory without first declaring at a port of entry/Customs port. He was candid in noting that one of the challenges that results in this practice is that the Customs port of entries are not small boat friendly.
“The challenge there I would say would be some of our facilities are not as accommodating as others are. With West End you would appreciate that small boaters could come up and tie there but at Road Town we would have challenges with smaller boats or even yachts coming and tying up there.”
Mr Romney explained that the procedure is in place that if a yacht or boat with accommodation comes into the territory after Customs would have closed they could drop there anchor at the port of entry and then make their way to declare when customs is opened the following morning. “Or you have 12 hours once you remain on board your boat in which to present yourself to immigrations and customs.”
He said what HM Customs has been finding is a number of boaters have been coming especially in Road Town to private docks. “Now the argument there is I am at a port of entry but they are not at a Customs port, hence you would have an offense if they go to those places that are private facilities.”
“Once there they could discharge; persons could be let off their vessels without immigration giving permission to land.”
According to Mr Romney, this violation has seen a little decline as the department has upped its operations.
‘You cannot overlook security for tourism’
Mr Romney recalled two of the most recent attempts of persons to unlawfully enter the territory. One occurred when a boat captain sent one of his crew members to declare and it was found that one of the persons was on the territory’s stop list. He had committed a prior offence, spent time in prison and was barred from ever entering the VI again.
Another was in July of 2016 when a yacht had capsized and some persons were picked up from the water and brought ashore in the VI. Once landed, some jumped off the rescue vessel and ran away. “They might have been persons of interest,” said Mr Romney.
According to Deputy Commissioner of Customs Mr Leslie H. Lettsome, in the past there was a “one stop” system in place but this had to come to an end following the 9:11 incident in the USA.
The department said it is necessary that it strikes a balance especially as it thinks about tourism.
“But you cannot overlook security. Security is critical for any nation and without the security measures in place it will have a negative effect on tourism and we cannot afford that. So we are trying our best along with the Virgin Islands Police Force to ensure that those security measures are in place to keep our visitors and residents safe,” added Commissioner of Customs Mr Wade N. Smith.
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85 Responses to “HM Customs makes ‘unpopular’ move to protect VI”
THANK YOU
In the 60'S you sailed by waived passed some weed or beer to customs agent and were good to go.
Customs should make room for small yachts at one end of customs docks and for the bigger yachts they could very easily have a customs officer at the village cay marina or Nanny cay where many charter yachts come to drop off or pick up guests as far as person swimming to dock get a life and take your dingy to the customs dock .
I hope they intend to quadruple the staff to do this and the size of the offices in which to wait.
The Government Now needs to realize that both ports of entry will need to be upgraded and expanded to accomodate this now influx of passengers.
And if this is NOT the case and all 50 people have to present, then by the time they're all checked in they'll have to get back on their boat & go straight back to STT! It would take all day!
Time to bypass the BVI entirely & take our boat elsewhere this winter. Sucks.
If you want to implement this you need mobile teams that go to the boats and clear them in. Having a sniffer dog for explosives and drugs with the team would make it very quick, otherwise you are going to screw up a huge industry.
Been sitting around relying on the tourist and charter trade for too long. Now they have killed it they can't survive as the locals are too lazy to think of an alternative income!
Customs and Immigration need every passenger to individually present themselves to officials. Facilities and staffing are currently inadequate to deal with the anticipated volume increase, according to feedback on here....
So how about recruiting and training more officials and giving them authorisation to BOARD the vessels in the company of border police or someone with authority to search and detain (if the need arises) and interviewing each and every passenger ON THE VESSEL? This should provide a compromise until facilities are improved and capacity for processing increased. This is done just as easily as French border police boarding a coach at Calais which comes over on the ferry from Dover and checking passports before admitting entry; hardly rocket science.
Come on man, if the mountain won't come to Muhammad, then Muhammad needs to go to the mountain... Recruiting and training more officials = increase in employment and improved customer service all around for decreased processing times. Interviewing passengers on vessels = better convenience for visitors and tourists and means the immigration officials can interview whomever they need to. WIN-WIN.
Shut up Daisy! Uza b**kside
A better solution is to target yachts at random. That is a better way to catch the undesirables. Anyone doing something illegal is not going to walk into an HM Customs office, with or without a suitable dock!
These facilities are not prepared for the amount of people
The death of 1000 cuts begins!
Also, in the USVI custom and immigration officers are very well trained, efficient and respectful. They are there for one purpose and if they do t do there job well they are fired. They aren't hired sticky because they are a belonged, they are hired on skill set. The procedures are the exact same every single day.
In the BVI clearing at customs/immigration is a constant game of what's it going to be today??? how much $$ today, how will so-so interpret the rules today, how long will we wait for xyz to arrive/open today(esp in Jost), who is going to be the rudest today, how long is this going to take today??? N
Some have said this check in process is what "happens everywhere else" the truth is it only happens in countries that have infrastructure, professional workforce and clear standards/ protocol to carry this out.
The BVI falls terribly short in all 3 of these areas.
We love our customers!
How long will all this take with their helpful ways and great attitude! This is very short sighted. The folks bring in guns and drugs and not checking in at custom