BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – FOR the second time in as many years, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has granted amnesty to some residents of the Federation who have not regularised their status.
The first amnesty was granted under the former Administration in 2013. However, the current one is being administered by the Team Unity Government in which Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Timothy Harris claimed is “a real amnesty” to the people of two CARICOM member states and a Spanish-speaking country.
“If you had listened to the Throne Speech last Thursday, you would have heard it said that we are going to give a real amnesty to the people of Guyana, Jamaica and the Dominican Republic who were in arrears in terms of their payments to regularise their status here. And we know how tough it is for you to pay $2 500. Imagine when you have to pay that for five years, for 10 years! And we say all of that back arrears that had been building up and accumulating to a position where you know you will never be able to pay, we in Team Unity offered you a fresh start, we forget everything of the past and we move forward with the present.”
Dr. Harris was at the time addressing a group of Guyanese who were celebrating Guyana’s coalition parties’ victory at the May 11 General and Regional Elections and the swearing-in of David Arthur Granger as that country’s eight Executive President.
The event was held yesterday afternoon (May 17) at the Manhattan Gardens in Lime Kiln, where Dr. Harris, in addition to reiterating Team Unity’s policies stated in the Throne Speech that would benefit non-nationals, joined them in celebrating the unity parties’ success in Guyana.
The unity parties are A Partnership for National Unity and Alliance for Change (APNU-AFC).
Prime Minister Harris declared that the amnesty would end in September of this year.
“That is the amnesty! And we say we give you an opportunity up until September to be able to come and to pay and your records will be cleared, notwithstanding however long you would not have paid. Once you pay up for 2015 you are in good standing. Once you become current, this year by September, then you are ready to go.
“We say that we will ensure that the policies that we apply would be helpfully and beneficially pursued by all the non-nationals and all the residents here. And we hope that you will take advantage, you will call your friends and they can take advantage. We know many people have been here for 14 long years…many of them would say to you, well their passports not up to date so they can’t go to pursue their citizenship, we now give you a fresh start with that.”
Dr. Harris also spoke to the system in which Guyanese are required to have a police record when applying for citizenship and declared that a mechanism would be in place to alleviate the difficulties in that regard.
“We know many of you have been here for over 14 years, your documents would have been held up at National Security. We know many of you when you return they say that they can’t find your passport…all that burden is on you. We know that it was terribly difficult for you to go back home to get a police record. Imagine to pay thousands of dollars to go there to get a police record which costs a few hundred Guyanese dollars, and we thought that is an unfair imposition on you. We are trying to work a system that would help us to avoid that particular difficulty, and we are going to be discussing with your new government a mechanism so that the government-to-government they will be able to provide us the necessary confirmation and documents, rather than we have to impose the additional burden for you to go back home to come back. And I know many of you when you are going, you are concerned - ‘Lord when we come back are they going to let us in, or it going to be more trouble again?’ And so we are going to bring some relief in that area.”
After congratulating the Guyanese on the success of the return of democracy to their country, Dr. Harris reminded them of the promisehe made whilst on the campaign trail.
“In closing, I want to say that Team Unity will not turn its back upon you the residents of CARICOM member states. Team Unity will be there helping you all the way. There are several times in the campaign we were asked on a variety of matters how far will you go. I say to you, once an injustice is being done to you Team Unity and I, as the leader, I am prepared to go all the way for your justice.”
