CHAIRMAN of Parliament’s Internal and External Affairs Committee, Derrick Smith, says that he is aware that some people in the witness protection programme are “going through hell”.

The Opposition member of Parliament made the remarks Tuesday amidst reports that the programme has been working “well”.

Smith, who was only hours earlier announced as the Opposition spokesperson for national security and leader of Government business in the lower house, was commenting on the heels of a statement made by permanent secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Carol Palmer, about the programme in response to a query from Government Committee member Denise Daley during a meeting.

“How comfortable are you in terms of securing these witnesses and how comfortable are they to stay in that protection for the period, especially with all these delays in the court system?” Daley asked. “Witness protection is a national security matter, but we are advised that the system works well, though under-resourced. There has not been one witness who has been killed while on our witness protection programme and that’s a very important point in our context which is not what happens in other jurisdictions,” Palmer told the committee.

“The point is, of course, you are deprived of all your independence and your family, just being able to exist as the rest of us and so the challenge of being in that programme for a long time is real. I am not sure how I myself would be able to cope with those restrictions,” Palmer added.

But Smith, following Palmer’s response, said, “There are varying views on how well the witness protection programme is working.”

“You made a point about we haven’t lost a life under the programme; that might be true but a lot of the persons, I know, are going through hell. (There is) frustration and they break the rules, they leave, they go around and expose themselves, maybe I shouldn’t say anything further,” he added.

The witness protection programme is a covert operation managed by the Ministry of National Security. Its main objective is to enlist legitimate witnesses of major crimes whose safety and security is at risk. The programme seeks to offer protection for these witnesses and provide support for the functioning of the wider criminal justice system.