8 February 2018
Prime Minister, Allen Chastanet, has told police officers that no one will be fired with the creation of a new border control body.
Chastanet told the annual general meeting Wednesday of the Police Welfare Association (PWA), that his administration’s goal is to have the border control entity in place by the end of this year.
‘There’s a committee that has been appointed to be what we call a transition committee to bring all the groups together, in terms of who is going to transfer from the Marine Police into the new Coast Guard – that’s the committee to make that decision. I don’t know the answer to that question,’ he stated.
In giving the assurances that persons would not be axed, Chastanet said:
‘If you have senior police officers who are in the Marine Police and not coming over to the new border control, they obviously will be retained and recommissioned in other aspects of law enforcement.’
In April last year the Prime Minister announced plans for the creation of the Customs and Border Control, asserting that it will see the Customs and Excise Department absorbing immigration and the Marine Police.
He explained then that in essence, Saint Lucia would become like the United States and some other countries in having a Coast Guard rather than a Marine Police station.
