Veteran dancehall artiste, Mr Lexx says he is confident that despite his recent detention and subsequent denial of entry to Panama, he will be able to visit the country again soon enough.

“I am very famous in Panama so I’m sure I won’t have any issues going back but I think there is a situation that both our Government and theirs need to sort out because people are being treated unfairly over there. A lot of people were turned back,” he shared with OBSERVER ONLINE.

Mr Lexx said he was visiting the Central American country to conduct a video shoot when he was detained by airport security last Wednesday. The entertainer who returned to Jamaica on Friday said he spent a night in the holding room at Tocumen International Airport in Panama as local authorities did not give him a chance to explain a two-decade old arrest charge from the US they had enquired about.

“When I got to the airport, the officers were checking everybody’s books and a number of us were taken away. We were walked to this room and when they got to me, they asked if I was arrested in America in 1997. I told them yes but that the case was thrown out and I was set free but they weren’t trying to hear what I was saying,” he said. “They didn’t really speak much English but they weren’t even trying to listen. They just put me one side and next thing me know, mi inna one room a di bottom a di airport without my documents, my boarding pass and my phone. I was there for the whole entire evening just wondering what’s happening.”

He said had it not been for the intervention of Jamaica’s foreign affairs and entertainment ministries, things for him could have been more “uncomfortable”. He used the opportunity to thank both ministries for reaching out on his behalf.

“I spent the night inna dat airport room with no way to link my family or anyone. I remembered I still had my laptop so I purchased a 24-hour internet thing and started tweeting and that’s how I got help. Kamina and Babsy (Foreign Affairs and Entertainment Ministers) responded immediately and got some assistance for me,” he continued. “I guess they reached out to the consulate and immigration was contacted because they then realised who I was and brought me back my stuff and started a brief interview. I’m so proud of and thankful for Babsy and Kamina it makes me even more proud to be Jamaican. Had they not reacted so quickly things would’ve gotten drawn out and more uncomfortable.”

-Shereita Grizzle