Graduation Ceremony for Immigration Officers on August 14

The Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) will graduate its 19th batch of Immigration Officers on Thursday, August 14, marking the culmination of a seven-week training programme aimed at strengthening Jamaica’s border protection capabilities.

The ceremony will take place at the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF), Up Park Camp, and certificates will be presented to the successful trainees.

Acting Director of Immigration Services, Daneisha Colomathi, told JIS News in an interview that the event will celebrate the final product of their recent immigration training.

“Since the inception of the Immigration Services becoming civilianised, this is our 19th batch; we trained 30 individuals to become our newest set of immigration officers,” Ms. Colomathi said.

The training began on June 16, and according to Ms. Colomathi, the very comprehensive training covered immigration laws and procedures and citizenship and passport laws and procedures.

“The course also included training from regional partners such as CARICOM IMPACS (Implementation Agency for Crime and Security) and the JRCC (Joint Regional Communications Centre). We focused on refugee determination, court proceedings, statement case file preparation and the whole gamut of areas to ensure that our officers are best prepared to carry out the functions of border security,” she explained.

Highlighting the breadth of the immigration officer’s role, Ms. Colomathi noted that many persons do not understand the full scope of their responsibilities.

“Most persons generally see us at the port of entry, where we are responsible for the processing of passengers arriving and departing via seaport and airport. We are also responsible for the extension of stay of persons who have already arrived but wish to stay longer. We also have a process called unconditional landing as well as our permanent residency programme,” she said.

“We are also involved in the deportation of foreign nationals who breach our immigration laws, and the processing of the deportation of Jamaican nationals who would have found themselves in breach of immigration laws in other foreign countries,” she added.

Out of the 30 trainees who began the programme, 29 will graduate. The training involved a mix of local and international expertise.

“We have our internal trainers, which are within the agency [PICA]. We also partner rigorously with our embassies here, primarily the US, Canadian and British High Commission. We have other partners, especially in the national security framework, the DPP officers, the Trafficking in Persons group, and persons to assist us in areas of refugee determination. It’s a wide range of persons that are involved in this training,” Ms. Colomathi noted.

She said the number of graduations per year depends on staffing needs.

“It is actually not set in stone, but primarily we try to train a minimum of 30 to 40 persons on each occasion. The last graduation we had was actually in 2023. We aim to have a graduation each year,” she said.