The United States Embassy in Kingston is employing new measures to ensure that only bona fide athletes, coaches and sports administrators obtain visas to participate in the annual Penn Relays carnival in Philadelphia.
The move is to safeguard against persons trying to illegally obtain student athletes American visas under the guise of participating at the annual Penn Relays carnival.
The US Embassy is, in fact, warning that anyone who knowingly assists another person to obtain a visa or enter America fraudulently can themselves be found permanently ineligible for a visa.
At least two prominent high school coaches Michael Clarke of Calabar High and David Riley of Wolmer's Boys School say they guard against this illicit practice.
"There is the other part of trust, integrity and credibility … if one values these three virtues quite highly, then that is not going to be a feature of what the embassy is claiming," Clarke said.
"If there is something illegal taking place then the (embassy) need to present the evidence and have it investigated. But Penn Relays is not the biggest meet for Jamaicans anyway, so we can find other places to go. I think if all the teams in the schools were to really assess the value that they get from attending the Penn Relays, then may be we would all be looking at other opportunities," Riley said.
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