Calls on nationals to embrace CARICOM brothers and sisters
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PRIME MINISTER and Leader of the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP), the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has promised Guyanese residing in the Federation that he would establish a desk to ensure that their immigration and other matters are addressed.
Dr. Douglas had made this statement last Tuesday (Oct. 15) during his weekly call-in programme ‘Ask the PM’ on ZIZ Radio. He was at the time responding to a caller who asked that the government makes sure that it does what is right for immigrants living and working in the Federation.
Dealing firstly with immigrants from the Dominican Republic, Dr. Douglas said, “Those who were born in Santo Domingo would have rights to be here by way of their parents and grandparents. They will be incorporated fully into the St. Kitts-Nevis community. They have citizenship by right and they will be processed. Of course, those who cannot prove that they have that right cannot obtain that right. Those who have that right, I say to them, they all will be processed properly and they will become citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis. Because they by Constitution are citizens…it is just that they need to be properly processed to become citizens.”
He declared that individuals who have applied to come to the Federation as visitors and want to work would be accepted once they would have “gone through the proper processing”.
Referring to the Shanique Myrie’s case in which the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) had awarded the Jamaican BDs$75 000 because the Barbados government had breached her right to enter the country under Article Five of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, PM Douglas noted that CARICOM nationals have certain rights and he had planned to meet with his Attorney General with the aim of looking at the implications of the judgment.
“We had a landmark case recently by the Caribbean Court of Justice pertaining to immigration matters within the Caribbean Community. I am having a meeting this morning with my Attorney General to look at the implications of this particular judgment, because CARICOM people, including Guyanese and Jamaicans in particular who are here with us, they, by virtue of that particular judgment of the Caribbean Court of Justice, have certain rights.
“And my government, therefore, has already taken the decision - in fact we had a meeting some time ago with the Guyanese community – that we will establish an appropriate desk in the appropriate department to make sure that their matters are being addressed. I want to again give public notice that this is being pursued, and all those therefore who have concerns, especially after the Amendment to the Legislation that we have had and who have concerns as to what their rights are under the new Legislation, and now with the new ruling that came out of the Caribbean Court of Justice two weeks ago, we will have in the relevant department a desk and officer assigned to deals with these matters specifically.”
This was confirmed by Stanford Conway, Guyana’s Honorary Consul to St. Kitts and Nevis, who stated that he had coordinated the meeting which was held in St. Peter’s.
“Indeed, the Prime Minister did meet with some members of the Guyanese community a few weeks ago at the Community Centre in St. Peter’s, where he listened to their problems and concerns and promised that they would be addressed.
“He, as well as his Deputy Dr. Asim Martin and Minister Marcella Liburd, told the Guyanese that the government would establish a desk at the Ministry of Homeland Security with an officer, who would record their immigration problems and concerns with the aim of rectifying any mistakes made in the past and to advise on the course of action to be taken once they have defaulted in regularising their status in the Federation.
“Dr. Douglas also told the Guyanese that with the recently amendment to the Legislation, whereby immigrants had to pay a fee of EC$2 500 per year for their work permit and had to wait until seven years had passed before acquiring Annual Residency (inclusive of work permit) for a fee of EC$1 500, that period has been reduced to three years.”
Conway also said the Prime Minister had indicated that certain things have to be in place before the desk could be established. He however noted that some Guyanese have already capitalised on the three-year Annual Residency system.
Dr. Douglas said that his government is sensitive to such matters and is concerned about “our brothers and sisters from around the Caribbean who are here with us and, who by virtue of not understanding what their rights are, will now be pursuing their rights”.
He declared that the government wants to assist and would assist the CARICOM nationals, and its efforts are not to marginalise “our own citizens who are born here”.
The Prime Minister stated that for many years that has been the platform of the People’s Action Movement (PAM)… “criticising this government. People like Jonel Powell…and Shawn Richards in particular, have made those kinds of crazy remarks on platforms. That has not been the way of my government”.
“I have inherited a party that believed from since time immemorial in Caribbean unity. It was our first national Hero Robert Llewellyn Bradshaw who left this government in St. Kitts, where he was serving, and went on to the Crown, the Finance Minister of the first government of the Federation of the West Indies in order to serve at the wider Caribbean Community. This party, the St. Kitts-Nevis Labour Party, is unmatched by any other party in this country with regards to its support to our brothers and sisters from around the Caribbean,” he added.
Giving an example of the SKNLP’s acceptance of CARICOM nationals to the Federation, Dr. Douglas said, “I want to make it very, very clear that it is because of the very strong belief that our party has had from time immemorial, that’s why we were able to embrace another National Hero in the person of the Rt. Excellent Sir Caleb Azariah Paul Southwell, who was born in Dominica, and not only became the Leader of this country but has been named as our National Hero. This is why we were able to embrace people like Fitzroy Bryant. Fitzroy Bryant was born in Antigua, his mother was born in Antigua, his father was from Antigua, but Fitzroy Bryant came here as a child, grew up here in St. Kitts and Nevis and became one of the strongest and foremost leaders of our country, not about party.”
He noted that it was for that reason his government had honoured Bryant by naming the College after him.
The Federation’s Political Leader accused the PAM of not making it possible for Bryant and others after him to become leaders in St. Kitts and Nevis.
“It was PAM, who on obtaining our Constitution at Independence, wrote into the Constitution in order to keep people like Fitzroy Bryant from aspiring in the future to leadership in St. Kitts. They wrote into our Constitution that unless at least one of your parents was born here you could not aspire to become a leader in our country. Wrote that into a constitution in 1983, in modern times when the Caribbean was opening up its arms and saying that we are all brothers and sisters of the Caribbean region.
“It was the PAM government, now in opposition, that practised discrimination against Caribbean people. Now they come talking to Guyanese and Jamaicans and Trinidadians as they are holier than thou and say, ‘Vote for me, vote for me’. Yet they wrote into our Constitution that those same people do not have the right to aspire to be government leaders in our country, because of colonialism they were born in another country or their parents were not born here.
“That is the kind of divisive politics that PAM and the Opposition have not only practised but written into a constitution, and God knows how we going to get that out of the Constitution, because you have to have two-thirds majority in the Parliament to change the Constitution. You have to go to a referendum to change that! Yet they are going around as hypocrites to the same Caribbean people, telling them ‘vote for me because I want to support you to do this, to do that’.”
Dr. Douglas also made reference to Dwyer Astaphan whilst he served in the Labour Party Administration as Minister of National Security.
“I had to stop Dwyer Astaphan, in my own Cabinet just a few years ago, from deporting Guyanese left, right and center! Although the Cabinet told him he cannot do it, he still did it and wanted to deport Bacchus and his family! And that’s where our fallout is today.”
The Prime Minister called on the nationals of St. Kitts and Nevis who are currently residing in the country to embrace their fellow CARICOM nationals.
“So I say to our people who are here, we are part of a Caribbean family. We are not big enough. We do not have the skill-set in sufficient quantities to advance our country alone. That’s why the Caribbean Community was created. We are a people who travelled far and wide. When we travel far and wide we want to be embraced, we want to be accepted. For God’s sake, I say to our people, let us accept our Caribbean people as brothers and sisters. Do not be sidetracked by the negatives that PAM was preaching in the past, and as hypocrites are now trying to say that they think otherwise. They do not thing otherwise…they wrote it in our Constitution. They have not changed! They may change their leadership but they have not changed. Their philosophy is the same…they do not accept Caribbean people as our own.”
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