THE Ministry of Labour and Social Security has processed 214 work permit exemptions for foreign nationals engaged in activities related to Jamaica’s preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC) 2007.

The bulk of exemptions are for persons involved in work on the Sabina Park and Trelawny Multipurpose Stadium projects and those engaged in planning and executing the event, including staff/advisors and officials of ICC CWC 2007 Inc, West Indies Cricket Board, ICC Development (International Limited), and Global Cricket Corporation (GCC); umpires and match referees; and official broadcasters and media workers accredited by the ICC CWC.

Acting director of the Work Permit Unit in the Ministry, Joan Archer, told JIS News that work permit exemptions were processed in seven days, as stipulated in Section 14 of the ICC CWC West Indies 2007 Bill, otherwise referred to as the Sunset legislation. “In instances where all the requirements are met and all the documents that are required are submitted, we have been meeting that deadline,” she said.

Archer said the Jamaica Local Organising Committee (LOC) was required to send a written request to the ministry along with a non-refundable processing fee of $1000, relevant data on the person for whom the exemption was being sought such as name and passport number, and once the information was received and processed, a letter of exemption was issued.

Meanwhile, she said that the unit was prepared to handle any increase in requests for work permit exemptions as the mega-event neared.

“Whatever the situation, the unit should be able to cope in granting the exemptions to these persons as quickly as the requests come in,” Archer told JIS News, the government’s public relations arm.

She added that while the unit had not increased its staff capacity, “what we did was to sensitise the staff to the urgency of how we treat with these documents and (for them) to quickly move these applications along so that they will fall within the stipulated deadline”.

.730 security personnel trained

SEVEN hundred and thirty security personnel have been trained as part of preparations for the staging of the ICC Cricket World Cup (CWC), which starts next month.

Of this total, 522 are from the Jamaica Constabulary Force with the remainder from the private security firms.

According to the executive director of the Jamaica Local Organising Committee (LOC), Robert Bryan, the necessary certification has been secured to allow for these trained personnel to be deployed in the proper manner for the staging of the event. “Without the proper certification from the ICC’s security training company, we cannot deploy any security,” he explained at a recent press conference at the Kingston offices of the Jamaica LOC.

He said that the number trained was in excess of what was required, but noted that, “we want to make sure that we can cover all eventualities.”

In terms of the deployment of the security personnel, Bryan said that the LOC was developing a ‘match by match’ deployment plan, based on ticket sales and stadium seating.

“That exercise is now ongoing so that within a couple of days, we will have a very clear match-by-match deployment matrix for our security personnel,” he said.

In the meantime, he said the security committee was engaged in daily simulations at both venues, working with venue management teams to ensure that all security arrangements were fine-tuned and implemented.

“If you go to both venues (Sabina and Trelawny stadium) you will observe that there are strict security measures in place that should restrict you from having free access and that applies right across, the board,” Bryan said.

“We expect that within the coming hours and days, that these security requirements will become tighter and tighter as the accreditation process is rolled out in those areas,” he added.

“We are asking everybody to understand that the venues are now under tournament rules and guidelines and therefore these security measures will facilitate the smooth planning and protection of all the necessary infrastructure and equipment that have been put in place there,” Bryan said.

– JIS News