TRINIDAD PARLIAMENT APPROVES FINGERPRINTING OF VISITORS AND DEPORTEES!

T&T PM Kamla Persad Bissessar—-

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) –

The Trinidad and Tobago parliament Monday approved of legislation allowing for the authorities to finger print visitors and deportees entering the country.

But opposition legislators voted against the Miscellaneous Provisions Administration of Justice Amendment Bill 2013 which needed a special majority to pass, citing human rights violation.

Attorney General Anand Ramlogan defended the passage of the legislation which required a special majority, saying it would assist in the fight against crime on the island.

“What we have here is the distillation of thoughts and the collective wisdom of a number of stakeholders that are involved in the fight against crime and I dare say as a Parliament we have a duty and a responsibility to respond positively to the clarion calls made by those involved in the fight against crime on the ground for the necessary legislative tool that can equip them to raise the detection rate that is so abysmally low in our country.”

Ramlogan assured that people would not be discriminated against by the passage of the legislation.