Immigration officers have been asked to ‘put into action the things that they learnt’
at a just-concluded three-day workshop conducted by a representative of the
Canadian government.
Permanent Secretary with responsibility for Immigration, Hildred Simpson, made
the appeal to the officers as she gave closing remarks at the training session on
Thursday at the Sir John E. St. Luce Conference Centre.
“I am very sure that our officers have learnt quite a bit and we look forward to you
putting into action what you have learnt. I know that some of you may have been
familiar with some of the subject matters at the workshop but I hope that you also
learnt new things and those that you knew before would have been concretised,”
she urged.
Participants at the conclusion of the workshop for Immigration Department’s officers
Natalie Charles is presented with a certificate by CIO Katrina Yearwood
Simpson expressed the ministry’s appreciation to the Canadian government for
offering its assistance through the facilitator, Pier-Luc Beausejour, of the Embassy
of Canada to the Dominican Republic..
“It’s a global village; we are small in Antigua and Barbuda but what affects the
small countries also affects the large nations so we know we have to collaborate
with others. That is why we are so grateful that Canada has seen it fit to assist us,”
he exclaimed.
Attendees at the workshop were drawn mainly from the immigration officers who
are assigned to the VC Bird International Airport and the E-Visa section of the
Department of Immigration. There were also representation from the Citizenship
by Investment Unit.
How to detect fraudulent documents and how to identify imposters through various
interviewing techniques were some of the subject matters covered at the workshop.
