Jamaica Observer online readers had mixed reactions to yesterday’s front-page story ‘Entry Denied’, but a few called on Jamaica’s Government to “man up” and use the 39th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, now under way in Montego Bay, St James, as a “make or break” meeting on the free movement of people and goods in the region.

In yesterday’s frontpage story, a Jamaican woman who had her four-month-old son with her when she arrived in Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday, complained that she was made to feel like a prisoner after being denied entry into that country. She was deported to Jamaica on Sunday this week.

Here’s what readers had to say:

Alexis F: If this is indeed correct, and she was treated this way with an infant in her company, then she should get free legal services by the Government to sue this country.

I’m not joking. The very fact that she had an infant and was treated this way, is a different game we playing. Doesn’t matter about overstaying or not. Enough of the nice talk and such. If Trump himself was forced to reverse his recent policy, then it shows that with the right public pressure anything can be changed.

Then again, if Trinidad would be so nice to detain one of those politicians then things would be much easier.

speak it like it is: I can remember when Jamaicans used to spend thousands to get to the UK. And when they get to the airport they get an interview, detained and put on a flight back to Jamaica. But with that said, the UK wasn’t in Caricom, we are. And if Caricom is something we’re trying to copy like the European Union, then Caricom cannot work without the free movement of people and goods from the region. So this Caricom meeting needs to be a make or break meeting around the movement of goods and people.

Blitz: I have never been to Trinidad and have no desire to do so. What a cold-hearted immigration officer? To think that they could have arbitrarily meted out such cruelty to a woman with a young baby is beyond comprehension.

JohnnyP: So much for the facility they said they constructed for circumstances like these. I honestly feel some of these Caribbean countries have a grudge against Jamaicans. If you go on their news websites, it’s nothing but negative news about Jamaica, which leads to preconceived notions about us since many of them have never even met a Jamaican before. There is a clear agenda against us, but the question is why.

Andrew (Holness) is now the chairman of Caricom and the annual meeting is taking place right here, right now. He better balls up and start putting pressure on these countries to fulfil their commitments.

Clirey: Jamaicans stop going where you are not welcomed. Trinidad is not like Jamaica. They have all kind of racial problems. They manage to keep it out of the international arena for the most part, but it can raise its ugly head any time without warning.

The politicians can talk about integration till the cows come home, it won’t happen.

leftlite: If even a fraction of the story that this woman has told is true — and I have no reason to disbelieve her — then it is quite shocking and disgraceful what has happened to her. The T&T authorities need to not only provide her with a complete explanation for this shabby treatment, but also an apology and compensation for the stress caused by this ordeal. There have been too many reports about Jamaicans being treated badly by Trinidadian Immigration personnel over the last few years and something needs to be done at the highest levels of government to put a stop to it.

Countries obviously have a right to determine who may or may not gain entry, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do these things, and this sorry tale seems to be a textbook example of the wrong way to go about it. Caribbean neighbours should be, well, more neighbourly.

disqus_IxbWfxzBwA: Hey, I might be slammed but I am on no side. The way the system works, regardless of what country you go to, is that if you don’t leave on the time they give you to stay, regardless of the situation, it is considered overstayed based on how we all operate. I do understand you got a legal extension, [but] that does not change the way it is being done. My mom got an extension for the (United) States and when she tried to go back some 20 years after that she was… denied entry. Again, it will depend on the immigration officer at the time to make that final decision. Also, we must be humble when talking to these people who have power, even in our country. I know how we behave at times and we love to say a suh yuh treat wi because wi from Jamaica. Let us try to change that way and I am sure they will look at us in a different way.

CR Cool: Unno stop complaining and stay a unno yard. When the bigger countries treat unno worst than this, unno nuh come pon social media and complain. Because of some Jamaicans negative track records in foreign countries, some of us will dearly suffer by the qua-cuoo shut syndrome expression. Its a privilege [to] enter one’s country and not an entitlement, irrespective of these so-called Caricom ties. Their immigrations rules were not changed because they’re Caricom-affiliated. So most of you Jamaicans get your facts in this regard. A di people dem country [too], and they do whatsoever in their immigration rulings.

AEW: The fact that the baby’s father is Trinidadian and the mother Jamaican probably didn’t sit well with the immigration officer either.