Bridgetown.
Senior Immigration Officer Melo Reid told the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) this morning that the dentention facility at the Grantley Adams International Airport (GAIA) is sanitary and cleaned every day.
Reid, an immigration officer with 32 years experience and a supervisor at the airport since 2007, was forced to defend the conditions in the detention centre while under cross examination on Day 3 of Shanique Myrie's discrimination suit against the Government of Barbados.
Reid constantly rufted claims by Myrie's lawyer Michelle Brown that conditions in the facility are inhumane, he did admit that detainees complained that the area is very cold.
"Sometimes it is even too cold for me," Reid told the court.
Reid testified that on all occasions beds in the detention centre have a mattress and is covered with a sheet.
He stated that complaints regarding the low temperatures at GAIA have been made about the entire facility, and not just the detention centre.
Reid testified that he has seen two persons sleep comfortably on the board-framed beds in the detention area. He said the beds were a little more than three feet in width.
The veteran immigration officer told the CCJ, Myrie was placed in the detention centre with a fellow Jamaican national on March 14, 2011 after a request was made for them to remain together.
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