Garica remains in detention

Bridgetown. 

Raul Garica is still being held in detention by the Immigration Department but High Court Judge Margaret Reifer  granted him a number of concessions which should improve his living conditions at the house where he is confined on the headquarters of the  Barbados Defence Force at the Garrison.

Justice Refifer met with Garica's lawyer David Comissiong and Donna Brathwaite, attorney for Minister for Responsible for Immigration and the Chief Immigration Officer for almost two hours yesterday to mediate an amelioration on Garica's conditions.

The Judge's decision to offer her services in chambers came after Comissiong told the court  his client was on the verge of psychological collapse because he was still under punitive incarceration and forced to stare at four walls 23 hours a day, every day and was not even allowed to listen to a radio or watch television.

Judge Refifer noted, she would be taking nothing lightly about the Garcia case, since it had be unresolved for sometime.  

She give the lawyers for the Minister and the Chief Immigration Officer until November 21, to get their case together so a full application could be heard in the Number Six Supreme Court regarding whether Garica's detention by the Immigration Department was lawful.

The parties return to court next Wednesday when Brathwaite and Comissiong will make submission regarding further improvements in relation to Garcia's living conditions.