Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Amidst re­ports that a re­jec­tion or­der against Amer­i­can strate­gist Bernard Camp­bell was with­drawn, UNC Po­lit­i­cal Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has giv­en Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Mar­tin Joseph sev­en days to ex­plain why Camp­bell was de­nied en­try to T&T last week. She made the re­quest via a let­ter which was made pub­lic to the me­dia dur­ing a news con­fer­ence yes­ter­day. Speak­ing to re­porters, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said the per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty in­formed her yes­ter­day that Campell's re­jec­tion or­der was with­drawn, and he was free to ap­ply for a work per­mit.

"The per­ma­nent sec­re­tary spoke with me and in­di­cat­ed that they were pre­pared to with­hold what they call­ing a re­jec­tion or­der and al­low Camp­bell to en­ter the coun­try. I asked them to put it in writ­ing," Per­sad-Bisses­sar said. She added that the per­ma­nent sec­re­tary al­so as­sured her that once Camp­bell ap­plied, the ap­pli­ca­tion would be processed. She said, how­ev­er, the de­ci­sion was "an at­tempt to do dam­age con­trol in what was a bla­tant act of ha­rass­ment and in­tim­i­da­tion." Per­sad-Bisses­sar said un­der the ex­ist­ing laws, Camp­bell could work in T&T for 30 days with­out a per­mit. "I am of the view that in cir­cum­stances he is not oblig­ed to ap­ply for the per­mit. Camp­bell, un­der our laws, is al­lowed to work for 30 days with­out a per­mit.

"What I want to know is the rea­son they re­ject­ed him in the first place. It wasn't about work per­mit re­quire­ments," she con­tend­ed. Per­sad-Bisses­sar said Camp­bell was de­nied en­try ac­cord­ing to Sec­tion 8 (1) (Q) of the Im­mi­gra­tion Act, Chap 18:01, which pro­hib­it­ed en­try to un­de­sir­able vis­i­tors. She said Min­is­ter Joseph must ex­plain why the de­ci­sion was tak­en. Asked whether Camp­bell would re­turn to T&T, Per­sad-Bisses­sar said she was not sure. She said there were al­so se­cu­ri­ty con­cerns to con­sid­er. Mean­while, UNC Chair­man Jack Warn­er said the de­ci­sion by the min­is­ter to re­voke the re­jec­tion or­der was a case of "too lit­tle too late." He said the dam­age to T&T's rep­u­ta­tion was al­ready done.