RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Six po­lice of­fi­cers from the Pe­nal Po­lice Sta­tion have test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID-19 over the past month.

South­west­ern Di­vi­sion po­lice say these in­fec­tions have oc­curred be­cause mi­grants are be­ing housed at po­lice sta­tions with­out be­ing med­ical­ly test­ed.

The of­fi­cers have been call­ing since No­vem­ber last year, for a sep­a­rate venue to be set up to house mi­grants.

In an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia, a se­nior po­lice source said for this year, over 50 of­fi­cers from the di­vi­sion were sent on quar­an­tine.

With the spread of cas­es in Pe­nal, about 30 of­fi­cers are still off work be­cause of quar­an­tine mea­sures.

“We are very con­cerned be­cause mi­grants are be­ing kept in the Pe­nal, Fyz­abad, San­ta Flo­ra and Erin Po­lice Sta­tions with­out be­ing med­ical­ly test­ed,” the source claimed.

He not­ed that there have al­so been ram­pant breach­es in COVID-19 pro­to­cols, par­tic­u­lar­ly among of­fi­cers.

Speak­ing at the po­lice press brief­ing yes­ter­day, ACP Wen­dell Williams, who is in charge of the Po­lice Mul­ti-sec­toral COVID-19 Com­mit­tee, con­firmed that con­cerns had been raised about the hous­ing of mi­grants in sta­tions since late last year.

“There was an is­sue con­cern­ing a di­vi­sion that has some con­cerns about the con­tin­ued de­ten­tion of sus­pect­ed pro­hib­it­ed mi­grants. The is­sue was raised as to find­ing a lo­ca­tion, a com­pound, a build­ing for which such per­sons can be held,” Williams said.

He added, “Since No­vem­ber we dis­cussed that and the mat­ter was again raised yes­ter­day (Wednes­day).”

He as­sured that the mat­ter was be­ing ad­dressed.

“There is a com­mit­ment that in the short­est time, we will be mo­bil­is­ing a sec­ond lo­ca­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly to serve the South­west­ern and the South­ern Di­vi­sions, with re­gard to the de­ten­tion of per­sons. We know at times the he­li­port is filled and we have had spill over in­to the sta­tions,” Williams said.

He com­mend­ed the of­fi­cers for con­tin­u­ing to process and de­tain mi­grants de­spite their con­straints. Say­ing this showed a lev­el of pa­tri­o­tism, Williams said he did not want any po­lice of­fi­cer to think that their is­sues were not be­ing ad­dressed.

“I want to ap­peal to the pub­lic at large and the po­lice to be re­spon­si­ble. This is a na­tion­al cri­sis. It is our re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to be pa­tri­ot­ic. Di­vi­sion­al com­man­ders must be ag­gres­sive in en­sur­ing that all the ini­tia­tives that we put in place are car­ried out and su­per­vised,” Williams said.

Mean­while, Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Gary Grif­fith said any po­lice of­fi­cer who is seen flout­ing COVID-19 reg­u­la­tions will be tick­et­ed. He urged mem­bers of the pub­lic to re­port any vi­o­la­tions, not­ing that no one was above the law.