BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — Cameras installed at the Grantley Adams International Airport have been functioning since they were put in place as part of the security arrangements for the 2007 International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) was told on Monday.

The Trinidad-based CCJ is hearing testimony in the case in which Jamaican Shanique Myrie has sued Barbados, claiming that an immigration officer assaulted her in 2011.

Myrie, 25, who was granted leave by the CCJ to file the action, alleges that when she travelled to Barbados on March 14, 2011 she was discriminated against because of her nationality, subjected to a body cavity search, detained overnight in a cell and deported to Jamaica the following day.

Myrie also claimed that she was subjected to derogatory remarks by a Barbadian Immigration officer at the Grantley Adams International Airport and is asking the CCJ to determine the minimum standard of treatment applicable to CARICOM citizens moving around the region.

On September 27 last year, Jamaica was granted leave to intervene in the matter.

Last week, the CCJ held its first ever sitting in Jamaica to hear testimonies from several witnesses and is now holding a similar hearing in Barbados.

Ian Best, the Systems Manager at the Grantley Adams Airport, told the panel of judges, headed by the CCJ President Sir Dennis Byron that all the cameras installed had a 360 degree coverage and all have been functioning since being installed.

Asked whether it as possible the cameras were not working, Best replied, “that would be news to me. I am not aware of the cameras not working.

“The cameras have all functioned from their installation to now,” he said, even as he acknowledged that a camera may fail from time to time and replaced or upgraded.

But he told the court the airport is never without surveillance cameras for a period of time and that since they were installed in 2004, only one camera has been replaced.

In his testimony, Acting Comptroller of Customs, Frank Holder, said he had requested the recording of the surveillance video from the Airport Manager Joseph Johnson and they were delivered sealed in an envelope to his office.

He told the court he personally delivered the video to Sergeant Vernon Farrell, who was carrying out investigations into the allegations made by the Jamaican.

Myrie’s attorney Nancy Anderson asked Holder whether or not during a meeting with the High Commissioner to Jamaica, Sharon Saunders, he had been asked about the cameras and whether they were functioning.

Holder said he could not give an exact date for when the cameras were installed, but they had been installed for the 2007 ICC World Cup.

He said he told Saunders he was not sure if the cameras were functioning, prompting Queen Counsel

Roger Forde, who is representing Barbados to indicate that the Office of the Comptroller of Customs, was not responsible for installation or maintenance of cameras at the airport.

Airport manager Joseph Johnson told the court that the cameras were installed prior to March 2011 when the alleged incident involving Myrie occurred.

He stressed that they were not newly installed and were fully functional and that in April 2011, Holder requested the footage of the tapes, which were delivered on three discs.

He said it was unlikely that there would be gaps in the recording as the camera rotated, but admitted that there were no cameras installed in the security area of the airport’s Immigration Department, the detention cell or bathrooms at the Grantley Adams Airport.