the practices of Bermuda Customs at the airport just 12 months after a Cabinet committee made recommendations on the problem.

Tourism Minister the Hon. C.V. (Jim) Woolridge disclosed yesterday the committee was formed last month and has met once. But he would not say who its members are.

"We believe visitors and locals should be treated with the greatest respect,'' Mr. Woolridge said. "The committee hopes to lessen the degree of complaints we (the Tourism Ministry) are getting.'' The disclosure comes in the wake of another complaint from a tourist about Customs officers.

Repeat visitor Miss Jan Hernandez said she is so afraid of being body searched the next time she visits Bermuda, she is considering not coming back.

The last time she passed through Customs, she was forced to match up dozens of allergy pills found loose in her purse with the plastic containers they came from.

Miss Hernandez told The Royal Gazette on Thursday that the treatment she received from Customs officers had gotten progressively worse since she first visited the Island in 1978.

Each of the 19 times she has visited since, Customs officers have grilled her and conducted "embarrassing searches'' of her luggage, she claimed. And on a number of occasions they have summoned narcotics officers to question her.

She added the searches keep her at the airport for more than an hour while "hordes'' of people pass by "staring'', and other tourists are directed through the "green light'' channel.

"Rather than being treated like a `regular' visitor, I was all but strip searched -- I suppose that is next,'' the angry tourist charged.

Miss Hernandez, a social worker from Philadelphia, said she was treated so badly when she visited Bermuda in May she wrote a letter of complaint to Customs and the Tourism Ministry.

However, Miss Hernandez said she did not receive an apology from Customs. And she said the Tourism Ministry replied in a "defensive'' manner.

"Arriving at the airport has gotten to be something I positively dread,'' she said.

"It's not like I am dressed weird when I arrive or have a criminal record.

It's just that I am a frequent visitor and a single female. I want to come back but I don't know if I can deal with the ordeal again. I feel like I am being put through a meat grinder.'' Added Miss Hernandez: "Bermuda needs to revamp its public relations philosophy and practices and work with Customs to welcome and not punish regular visitors.'' Premier the Hon. Sir John Swan formed a special Cabinet committee last April to combat a rash of visitor complaints about being "strip searched''.

It was made up of members of the Ministry of Finance, Tourism and Labour and Home Affairs, and investigated the airport drug squad and the manner in which it carried out drug searches.

In a report released three months later, it called for more supervision of "strip searches'' and better training for those carrying them out. It also recommended making better use of other methods of stopping the importation of drugs.