Gail Alexan­der

US cit­i­zen Hen­ry Bernard Camp­bell was de­nied en­try in­to T&T, but was not de­port­ed, ac­cord­ing to a Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty state­ment.

The state­ment fol­lowed ear­ly-morn­ing claims by UNC ac­tivists that Camp­bell was de­port­ed. Yes­ter­day morn­ing, UNC pub­li­cist Ernie Ross said he was meet­ing with UNC leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar to in­ves­ti­gate the sit­u­a­tion. Ross owns Ross Ad­ver­tis­ing to which sev­er­al US PR spe­cial­ists are at­tached. The group is han­dling pub­lic re­la­tions for the UNC and its op­po­si­tion part­ners.

The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty state­ment de­nied that Camp­bell was de­port­ed "on or­der by the Min­is­ter." The state­ment not­ed that no such de­por­ta­tion or­der was is­sued or signed by the Min­is­ter or any Im­mi­gra­tion of­fi­cer. The state­ment not­ed that Camp­bell was de­nied en­try in ac­cor­dance with Sec­tion 8(1) of the Im­mi­gra­tion Act Chap­ter 18 (01).

UNC's Ross said the PR prac­ti­tion­ers en­gaged by UNC have le­gal con­tracts be­tween the US AKPD firm and the par­ty. Ross added, "Any­one can work with­out per­mit while in T&T as long as they're here for 30 days. You re­quire a work per­mit if you stay to work be­yond that pe­ri­od." Ross who is Guyanese said he has been liv­ing and work­ing in T&T for 20 years. (GA)