The 2020 Customs Act could include provisions for transgender individuals in situations where body searches are required by customs authorities.
Transgender individuals are those persons who identify as a gender that is different from the sex they were assigned at birth.
The issue of guidelines for searching these individuals arose in yesterday’s meeting of the Joint Select Committee reviewing the 2020 Customs Act.
A provision of the Act states that an officer who has reasonable grounds to suspect that a person is carrying goods that are subject to customs control, in respect of which a contravention of any customs law is being committed, may search the person.
Highlighting the provision, Senior Director of Legal Affairs for Jamaica Customs Agency, Hazel Edwards noted that there were some concerns from stakeholders.
