It’s official. We now have a Cayman Islands Customs and Border Control Agency.

Yesterday (Mon 27) at a hastily announced Press Conference, Premier Alden McLaughlin announced Robert Scotland, Leo Anglin and Charles Clifford as heads of the new agency. See iNews Cayman’s story today “Cayman Islands Premier announces heads of Coast Guard, Customs and Border Control Agency”.

All three are Caymanians and that will stop the shouts of ‘stop expats get the top jobs’.

They are ‘son[s] of the soil’ as our premier called one of them.

The PR said, “Staff members have been involved in specialist joint operations and training continues in enhanced search and rescue capabilities. Cayman has also been assisted since January by Mr. Colin Brown of the United Kingdom Border Force who is helping us make the Customs and Immigration merger effective.”

This presumably means there will be troops assigned to this Unit although it has not been disclosed as how many.

At the moment it looks like all chiefs and no indians.

Premier McLaughlin said the leadership will take “ the security of our airports and seaport to world class. This new agency is tasked diligently to uphold the law in relation to customs duty, landing and entry, asylum and border control.”

Money for the new unit I understand has been included in the 2019 Budget.

It is a very tough job patrolling our borders.

Yesterday, I called upon our immigration and other staff at our airports to be more friendly. This does not apply to personnel employed at the Coast Guards patrols. Most of their work will be at night. It is not just stopping the drug and gun smugglers but rescuing people trapped at sea in the most dangerous of weather conditions.

It’s a job I am not going to apply for, nor would I if there was a job to be had there when I was much younger.

Good luck then to Messrs. Scotland, Anglin and Clifford. I hope you get enough men to work under your command and as many patrol boats you will require.

Or will it be a drone patrol force?

Or a combination of men, boats and drones?

We are at the beginning of a new age. I’ll just have to coast along with it all.