Caribbean not a soft target during World Cup, says Barbados Dy PM

Castries, St Lucia, Jan 11 (UNI) Allaying fears of security threats during the cricket World Cup, Barbados Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley said the Caribbean should not be regarded as an easy target for terrorist plots.

After having a first-hand look at arrangements for the implementation of a single domestic space in the region, Ms Mottley said, ''People out there need to know that this is not a region that has disregarded security, so don't bother to come and feel that we are easy targets.

''We believe that while we cannot guarantee nothing will happen, we are trying our best to mitigate against anything happening,'' she said.

''We have a responsibility to protect the region because we know that the cost and the time of recovery will be beyond our capacity, and it will bring untold suffering to the region if we did not try to minimise it,'' she was quoted as saying by the West Indies Cricket Board website.

''Yesterday, 21 people died in a bombing in Sri Lanka, yesterday there was a scare in the port of Miami which is the home port for most of the cruise ships to the region, and last week in Australia there were persons arrested for the sale of rocket launchers for a plot to bomb buildings in Sydney, Australia.

''Our vulnerability comes not because of our politics or our foreign policy but simply because we may well be a convenient location where the public perception is that the security is less,'' she said.

''...persons who are travelling from one of the 10 countries to another will simply come into immigration and will submit their ED card, but will not have to have their passport stamped. That privilege and the single domestic space will extend to all persons except those on the INTERPOL watch list or CARICOM watch list,'' Mottley asserted.

She also revealed that the various lists had been generated by the Commissioners of Police in the 10 countries and their Chief Immigration Officers to ensure that persons who fall into either criteria established by the Heads of Government will not pose a security risk to the countries that are liberalising their entrance.

''In these circumstances, we will also be issuing clear designations which will allow us to separate those who are on CARICOM flights from those who are on International flights and it therefore means that within the context of the airports you've got to be able to provide for that separation physically,'' said Ms Mottley.

UNI