SIMPSON BAY, Sint Maarten – On Monday 13 July 2020 the Honorable Minister of Justice, Anna E. Richardson and her Cabinet, accompanied by senior staff of the Ministry of Justice and two representatives of Stichting Beheer ICT Rechtshandhaving (SBIR) which is the foundation that manages ICT for Law Enforcement on Sint Maarten, visited the Princess Juliana International Airport.
Two senior Border Control officers provided Minister Richardson and her delegation with a tour of the immigration areas at the airport. Minister Richardson found the detailed explanation of the immigration check process to be very insightful and commended the officers for their professionalism. During the tour, the Minister was especially interested in, among other items, the handling of visitors that overstay their welcome in the country, which can be identified through the use of the Border Management System (BMS).
Also present were Mr. Hans Schreuder, director of Stichting Beheer ICT Rechtshandhaving (SBIR) and Mr. Joel Sanches, contract manager and project leader of SBIR, who provided a presentation to the Minister on the functionalities of the system software used by Immigration at the airport. SBIR is a Curacao based non-profit organization specialized in Justice-related ICT-products. The work carried out is exclusively for the Ministers of Justice of Sint Maarten, Aruba, Curacao and the Caribbean Netherlands (Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba). All four kingdom countries are represented in the SBIR via their representative in the supervisory board.
In addition to providing Immigration with the Border Management System, the foundation also designs, implements, manages and maintains applications for the Police Force, the Coast Guard, the Public Prosecutor’s Office, the Joint Court of Justice, the Probation and Rehabilitation Service and the Court of Guardianship. These systems are integrated and support sharing of information within the law enforcement chain of St. Maarten.
Minister Richardson expressed her commitment to continue to work closely with SBIR to further professionalize the law enforcement IT and information chain. Some actions that already have been identified are to further improve the Immigration Department by implementing the Foreigners Management System (FMS) and to implement an updated administration system for the prison.
