Dear Editor,
I would appreciate it if you can place this letter in your newspaper, as I believe unreasonable and possibly incorrect behaviour of immigration officers occurred, which are ultimately paid by the people of St. Maarten, and should realize that with responsibility there also comes accountability towards the same community they are serving.
In short this is my recent experience:
My daughter who just graduated from a flight attendant school in Bogota, invited one of her friends to stay with us in St. Maarten for a 1 month holiday. My daughter gave her female friend, a single girl who just celebrated her 21st birthday and has never been outside of her native Colombia, our address in St. Maarten and made sure she had a valid credit card in her possession. Much to our surprise, when she arrived at the St. Maarten airport, the immigration officer would not let her in.
We knew this, as the girlfriend communicated to us directly in the arrival hall via her phone.
We then asked the security guards and the lady at the information booth to help us by contacting the immigration by phone. The security and information desk workers were always very polite and helpful contrary to the immigration officer who I eventually got on the phone: “we cannot give you any information Sir, you will have to check with the airline.”
Needless to say that the airline officials that I visited directly after, told me that there is absolutely nothing they can do in this matter. When contacting the immigration by phone again they now explained to me that the girlfriend did not have “sufficient funds” for legally entering St. Maarten. Obviously her credit card was not regarded as sufficient means of funds. Even when I informed her that I was in the Arrival hall, she was staying with me, I would be responsible for her and could sign any document for that order, she just simply said I needed to get a Guarantee letter in Philipsburg knowing that the offices were already closed.
After another hour of waiting and wasting more time the girlfriend then informed us via my daughters’ phone that they would accept a signed Guarantee letter. I prepared it fast as I live close to the airport, printed it and me and my wife signed it and my wife handed it over to the immigration officer who then said: Oh but it does not have an immigration stamp! This at Thursday evening around 7:00pm when all immigration offices are closed since 4:00pm and the next day being a holiday.
End of story, they sent my daughters girlfriend of 21 years, alone, back to Curaçao, a country unknown to her, without any flight possibility to leave back to Colombia earlier than Saturday! Well done immigration officer, you sure have earned your place as an example of friendliness in St. Maarten.
Paul Ideler
