I travelled to Freeport on December 24, 2005 for the Christmas holidays to visit my family. I am a Bahamian living in Florida. I was appalled and absolutely disgusted with the Customs Clearance operation for Discovery Cruises at Freeport Harbour.
I had disembarked the ship at 1.50 pm and Bahamas Immigration went smoothly and I cleared Immigration in less than about eight minutes. As I proceeded downstairs to collect my baggage a nice gentleman I was talking to remarked: “Let me enjoy these last few seconds because for the next four hours it’s going to be hell.” I had no idea at this point what he was talking about until I turned the corner and saw the chaos occurring at Customs.
I must point out that I had only checked in one bag. There was no line for families with four or less bags. l was forced to endure 21/2 hours on my feet standing on one single line that curved all the way back to the building. I had bicycles passing over my head, trolleys being pushed into my back, people jumping the lines, etc. There was no Custom Officer to keep an eye on the line to ensure that no one was jumping the line.
In fact, for the hundreds of Bahamians trying to clear Customs, there was only one line where you had to go through this one female Customs Officer. When you thought the nightmare was all over there was another line to actually clear Customs that you had to go through to actually do your Customs clearance.
Once I finally cleared Customs I got a porter to help me with my bag and the whole time he was telling me that when the other porters saw him helping me with my one bag, they all told him he was wasting his time. Apparently they are being tipped upwards of $70 or $80 to assist passengers in “jumping the Customs line.” The Customs lady at the front seemed quite aware of what was going on and allowed the porters to assist passengers in “jumping the line for a fee.” I tipped him $10 to carry one bag and he told me that it was not enough when he can get $70 on one passenger. I do not see why he felt he deserved more because by the time I got to him I was already at the front of the line after standing on my feet for 2-1/2 hours. Someone needs to also look into this type of abuse by these porters.
There was a lady in front of me who had eleven items to clear and her husband who was at the front of the line had six additional bags. The gentleman in the back of me had ten bags by himself. There is absolutely nothing wrong with Bahamians bringing 10, 20 or even 30 checked bags if they like and frankly I can’t blame them.
All I have to say is that there should and MUST be an express lane for families clearing Customs with four bags or less.
It was not fair to me or other Bahamians living abroad who are coming over for the holidays, or any other day for that matter, to be subjected to this torture if we just have one or two pieces to clear (like many of us had). This was a barbaric and disgraceful experience and I hope that when I come again, to Freeport that there are some significant changes.
Whoever is in charge of the Customs operations at Freeport Harbour must do a better job because right now it is being run like an absolute dump.
By: KATRINA BUTLER, Bahamian in Florida
