New In-Transit Lounge will lower chances of illegal immigrants entering undetected — BVIAA
The newly installed In-Transit Lounge at the Terrance B Lettsome International Airport is expected to minimise the possibility of illegal immigrants entering the British Virgin Islands when traversing through the Beef Island airport, the BVI Airports Authority (BVIAA) has said.
Acting Managing Director of the BVIAA, Clive Smith said that because of the new measures which in-transit passengers have to take when entering the BVI, it will lessen the possibility of undocumented travellers entering undetected.
“Before we implemented this lounge, the passengers would actually come into Immigration and would actually walk into the terminal and would have to be rechecked into the departure area. Now, all passengers that are in transit will stay inside in the restricted area and come in through the In-Transit Lounge,” Smith explained.
“So those passengers are no longer out in the general population of the Virgin Islands, mixing with other passengers [so] there’s less chance of these passengers actually entering the territory if they, for example, are not of the correct Immigration status,” he added.
Process explained for In-transit passengers
Smith also said that the BVIAA has made changes to the route in-transit passengers typically take after landing in the BVI and leaving the aircraft.
He said: “Those of you that frequent the BVI or the Terrance Lettsome International Airport would recall that usually, you make a right turn towards the Immigration Department. We’ve since made a change for the In-Transit passengers.”
“The now in-transit passengers will make a left turn at the juncture and would turn to the in-transit lounge where they will then be met with BVI Airports Authority security staff who would then screen the passengers. Once the screening is complete, they then make their way into the general population in the departure lounge,” Smith further explained.
The new In-Transit Lounge which officially opened on February 1, is projected to earn the BVIAA an approximate $130,000 to $156,000 in increased annual revenue.
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Lol boy you can really hear ting!
Just trying to justify this bulls**t. You feel it’s necessary then do it but don’t charge people to use a lounge that they care nothing about and don’t want to use.
what is actually needed is clearance through immigration as you leave the country. you do that, and a good much of those that overstay will either get caught or will not overstay in the first place.
What a joke. Illegals enter these borders, and have been doing so for decades, ever since Tola became a viable economic destination.
Nothing, nada, has ever been done to upgrade immigration department capabilities relevant to the accountability of the migrants process, border security or anything else.
Another sound bite is another sound bite. Nothing else will be achieved thereby. And the flow will continue uncontrolled.
You have an in transit lounge to block the doorway, but the door stands and all the walls are broken down!
What bullshit is this man saying? How can you legally visit the BVI, pass through immigration, make it to the general population as he calls it, and still be considered an illegal immigrant? Surely the illegals would be caught at the Immigration desk? Seems the young man has to play the game because he got a little promotion but what he is saying makes no sense.
nothing this dude says make sense he is a puppy dog and he dont have no manners childish and dont have a clue wtf he doing
It would be interesting to know which department of government calculated revenue between $130.000 and $156.000. To achieve this an average of 14300 passengers paying $10 each is needed.
As it is unlikely more than 10% of all arrivals will be in-transit only, a total of 143.000 passengers are expected to arrive at Beef Island each year. This is requires 7 Liat flights with 57 passengers on board every day of the year. Is that feasible?
Plus if they can’t get increments calculated correctly, I can’t see how anyone could take these numbers serious.
and they call trump bad names for wanting to secure the us boarders. I am so sick of all this politics!
Is it an intransit lounge or an intransit area? It is no different from the arrangement that obtains at major hubs such as Antigua when one is transiting through. But the BVI is far from a major hub. It would have to be receiving a ton of intransits per day/week in order for them to collect the revenue they are forecasting. Where are these intransits coming from other than maybe the DR? Also prior to the ‘intransit lounge’ they surely must have had procedures in place to deal with intransits to ensure they go where they are supposed to go to get their connection.
NOWHERE except DR! Looking at our location who else would intransit via BVI? DR is to our west so anyone heading down island it makes sense to transit here. The other places like PR, Jamaica and others west of us have no need to do so as they have direct flights to those places East/South of us.
You will need to get 200 in-transit passengers per month to get enough money to pay an officer $2000 a month to screen these passengers.
Plus other administrative costs. Makes no sense.
No one worried about the “intransit aliens” that arrive at West End, Roadtown ferry and Fly out? We will need secure “intransit alien” buses with security details to make sure they do not stay in the country. Or those that fly in and need to be transitted to the Ports they will also need the the special “alien transit” buses. I see this getting costly!! Or charge them $100 each.
Yet again fully speed ahead with blindfolds on