Law enforcement looking for man caught misleading immigration and health officials

by Linda Straker

• Arrived from United Kingdom to Barbados using British passport, and Grenada passport to depart Barbados for Grenada
• All persons from medium risk countries must go into mandatory quarantine for 14 days
• Individual skipped mandatory quarantine after he was placed in location 

Police are assisting the Ministry of Health to locate a man who misled immigration authorities about his original place of departure, and then skipped mandatory quarantine after he was identified as someone who travelled from a destination classified by Grenada as medium-risk for Covid-19 exposure and control.

“The police are currently looking for a young man, I will not call his name… the person in question came from the UK. They deliberately misled us into thinking they came from Barbados. They were supposed to go into quarantine, they breached the quarantine protocol and went at their home. That person resides in St Patrick,” said Keville Frederick, Information Officer with the Ministry of Health.

Research into the claim points out that the young man departed the United Kingdom using a British passport which was scanned into the Barbados electronic system. However, when he was departing from Barbados using another airline, he used his Grenada passport.

On his arrival form, he did not admit to flying in from the UK because under Grenada’s travel health protocol, the UK is a medium-risk country and all persons from medium-risk countries must go into mandatory quarantine for 14 days. Instead, he claimed to be flying from Barbados, which under Grenada’s classification is a low-risk destination, and travellers from low-risk countries are not placed in quarantine.

However, because of the regional travel system, his untruthful declaration was detected, and the mandatory quarantine was ordered. He did not immediately object but skipped the mandatory quarantine after he was placed in the location.

“That individual poses a risk to the community and the entire population right now,” said Frederick, who tight-lipped to confirm which test for Covid-19 was conducted on the young man who is now wanted by the authorities.

Both police and health authorities visited the St Patrick home listed by the young man, but family members have told them he is not residing at the house. Another individual who arrived with the young man accepted the quarantine stay and is expected to be released soon.

Frederick, speaking on the Friday programme ‘Hardtalk’ called on the young man to turn himself in at any police station or the authorities will be left with no choice but to publish his photograph. “Turn yourself in. If you don’t, we will be forced to do something unorthodox,” he said.

Since Grenada confirmed its first Covid-19 cases from the UK in March, there have been 24 confirmed cases on the island. There have been no deaths.

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