A breakdown in communication between two essential United States departments may have led to the Bahamas Head of State, the Governor General Her Excellency Dame Ivy Dumont being subjected to a security search at the Miami International Airport, a well placed U.S. source told the Bahama Journal.
The American executive admitted that there have been challenges in the past to transiting diplomats being subjected to security searches.
The source said the incident involving Dame Ivy may have been the result of MIA’s Protocol Office not informing the Transportation Security Administration of her arrival, according to a source from the organization based in Crystal City, Virginia.
Although U.S. airport policies allow for security screenings for certain individuals to be waived, it is based on the rank of the individual, according to Chief of the U.S Embassy’s Political, Economic and Public Affairs Section, Robert Kerr.
“The procedures of how persons are screened is a matter of individual airport policies to a certain degree, based on what their security policies are,” he explained. “We’ve registered our general concerns with the Transit Security Administration that Heads of State be afforded the best courtesies that are possible, but ultimately, it is not our decision as to how those policies are undertaken.”
Objecting strenuously to the ﾓhighly improperﾔ incident, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell told the Bahama Journal on Tuesday that his office had filed a diplomatic protest which would ultimately be forwarded to the United States Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Mr. Kerr said he could not speak specifically to the particular incident involving Dame Ivy. He acknowledged the Embassy receiving a diplomatic protest from the Bahamas Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“We’re acting on the protest in terms of forwarding it up to the appropriate channels in Washington,” he said.
Diplomatic policies dictate that the Bahamas government give at least three days notice to the United States Embassy regarding U.S. travel arrangements for a government official or a diplomat. The Embassy would then inform officials at the Airport Authority in the respective U.S city.
“At Miami International, they’re dealing with officials from dozens of other countries and I’m sure protests have been raised as well,” Mr. Kerr said. “I’m not sure in terms of what they do, but I can imagine that they take it very seriously and are constantly trying to review what the procedures are, to be as appropriate as possible, given whatever security concerns the United States has relative to the volume of individuals who pass through Miami International Airport relative to diplomatic protocol.”
“I imagine that they do try to balance all of those things,” he added.
Dame Ivy, along with her husband Reginald, were about to board an American Airlines flight for a Heads of State meeting in St. Kitts and Nevis, when she was escorted to a room for the security screening.
“Diplomats are to be accorded a certain level of respect as far as security measures are concerned. We consider it improper and that’s the view we’ve put to them and we’ve asked them to sort it out so it doesn’t happen again…the protest was made as soon as the Consul General made her report to me about what happened to the Governor General,” Minister Mitchell said.
Bahamian officials are stressing that they want the U.S. to address the matter immediately immediately.
By Hadassah Hall, The Bahama Journal
