BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – MANY non-nationals are uncertain of their stay on Nevis following recent events, including an operation that was launched last Friday afternoon (Mar. 12) by the Royal St. Christopher and Nevis Police Force to rid the island of illegal immigrants.
Information reaching SKNVibes states that immigration officials, accompanied by a female Labour Officer had apprehended some 29 persons, whom they believed were illegally on the island. These persons were taken to the Charlestown Police Station, where they were told to produce proof of their legal status.
This media house contacted the Assistant Commissioner of Police with responsibility for crime, Joseph Liburd, who said he was told that it was an operation launched not to harass but to ensure immigrants are not illegally residing and working on the island.
Liburd stated he was informed that those individuals who had work permits for 2009 would not be told to leave the island, only those who were without in previous years.
He also advised that this media house should contact Inspector Hilroy Brandy for more details on the operation, but up to press time all attempts to do so proved futile.
However, a source close to the police said “it was a normal operation…just like our traffic, drugs, guns and ammunition operations”.
However, contrary to these explanations, many non-nationals said they were grossly embarrassed by the police and displeased with the manner in which they went about their duty.
“I am working and living legally in the Federation. On Friday afternoon, I had just disembarked the vehicle that brought me from work to Charlestown when some police officers approached and asked me where I’m from. I told them that I was a Guyanese and they asked me for my work permit. I told them that the application was sent to the relevant authorities for processing along with my passport that has over six years work permits stamped on it. They told me that they don’t want to hear that and they put me in a vehicle and took me to Charlestown Police Station. But after being there for over a hour, one of my relatives brought the receipt and I was released.
“I know that they have to carry out their orders, but if they intend to pick up every Guyanese and Spanish national they see on the road or believe the occupants of a certain house are illegally in the country, that’s the wrong way in executing those orders.
There are two ways in doing anything…the right way and the wrong way. Why didn’t they check the immigration records to know who arrived and who left the island? Why didn’t they check with the Federal Office in Nevis and the Ministry of National Security in St. Kitts and compile a list of immigrants who are illegally in the Federation?
Instead, they go about their task in a haphazard manner and have caused many people to be embarrassed and also to be kept away from doing something constructive with the time they had us at the station. The police officers have to get their act right; maybe this is one of the reasons why there is a low solvability rate of crimes in Nevis,” said a skilled construction worker.
Another man said he was having his hair cut in a barber shop in Charlestown when police officers entered, apprehended all the non-nationals within, “even the barber who is married to a Nevisian, and took them to the station”.
“Even though I heard the barber telling them that he is a citizen by marriage, they still took him away and left me with one part of my head shaven. I later found out that they released them, except one Guyanese,” said a young Nevisian.
Many onlookers alleged that there were two popularly known political activists outside of the GT Bar in downtown Charlestown pointing out Guyanese nationals to the law enforcement officers.
“I strongly believe that this is a political move! I am of the view that the actions by the police have not only been as a result of what the Guyanese woman did on Election Day, but also because of the parties the CCM held at the GT Bar and a Spanish bar called Enriques Bar,” one onlooker opined.
One Guyanese national said, “It was announced on the airwaves that the Nevis Island Administration would not issue any new work permit, but they would renew those who have been working legally in Nevis over the past years. However, they have not stuck to their words. Many of us who had work permits for last year have had our applications turned down for 2010. Some of us have also received letters of dismissal without any part of it stating the reason or reasons, or what we have done wrong.”
It was also learnt that the operation had affected the Friday afternoon and Saturday’s earnings of some local entrepreneurs, including vendors in the market. Yesterday, one vendor told SKNVibes that she had to return home without making any profit.
“I does do a little farming but most things that I sell I does buy from the Dominican boat. Since early this morning I come out to earn a dollar but I aint mek nothing because it does be the Guyanese and Spanish who does support me, and it look like if they frighten to come out from deh house today. If this continue I gat to find another source of income.”
On a visit to the Charlestown Police Station on Saturday, no senior officer was present but a Corporal told SKNVibes that most of the persons apprehended on the previous day were released and only few of them were in the ‘lock-ups’ – three men from Guyana and two more from Santo Domingo.
