Barbados Immigration Policy: Is it fair?

[DC]

<span style="font-weight: bold">Barbados: Our immigration policy not a matter for others to comment on.
CMC
Thursday, June 18, 2009</span>

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) - Prime Minister David Thompson has spoken out strongly against those Caribbean governments that have commented publicly on his administration's new immigration policy, saying their reaction was hurting the regional integration process more than the policy itself.

&quot;There seems to be a mad rush now for everybody to say something new. I have announced a domestic immigration policy that is not a matter for other Caribbean prime ministers to comment on,&quot; Thompson said, referring to a <span style="font-weight: bold">six-month amnesty offered to Caribbean Community (Caricom) nationals living in Barbados illegally to regularise their status or face deportation.</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold">Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo has expressed concern about the treatment meted out to his nationals in Barbados, many of whom claim they have been roughed up by immigration authorities and deported.</span>

St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves is another regional leader to raise concern about Bridgetown's policy, saying it flies in the face of the spirit of Caricom.

But Thompson said it was a matter that Barbados has a right to pursue.

&quot;It is a sovereign matter which our Parliament and our policy directives base the objectives on,&quot; he said. &quot;Therefore, to have a scenario where everybody is seeking to say something seems to me to be doing more to damage the objectives of Caricom than anything else.&quot;

Despite the Barbados leader's latest pronouncement, the issue is sure to stir up debate when Thompson sits at the table with his regional counterparts at the Caricom Heads of Government Summit in Guyana from July 2-4.

Last weekend, Opposition leader Mia Mottley called on the government to &quot;correct the unfortunate reputation that Barbados is rapidly developing&quot; as a result of its new immigration policy.

&quot;A government is entitled to implement strong policies. These policies, however, must be applied consistently, fairly and humanely,&quot; she said.

Mottley also expressed fear that &quot;for a country where people's standard of living depends on people visiting our shores, any reputation of Barbados being inhospitable to visitors will affect our economy&quot;.

&quot;A hostile environment for immigrants must not be an unwelcome environment for Caribbean visitors,&quot; she said.

&quot;The focus must be simply those who have arrived and who have never been documented. Further, when people are asked to leave that they are given the time to pack up their belongings and leave in a manner that does not reduce them to feeling like criminals,&quot; the opposition leader added.

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[DC]

Re: Barbados Immigration Policy: Is it fair?

<span style="font-style: italic">Meanwhile...</span>

<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Deportee from Barbados recounted her experience</span>
</span>:<span style="font-style: italic">Says 26 Guyanese were rounded up in one raid</span>

An undocumented Guyanese couple in Barbados heard a knock on their door early one morning and then the intruders used a crowbar to wrench it open and soon after they found themselves among others enduring the long wait before being put aboard the next plane back home.

A woman who spoke on the condition of anonymity told Stabroek News on Wednesday that she regretted being sent home but will pick up the pieces and eventually move to another country since she has lost hope of accomplishing much in her homeland.

They were sent home prior to the May 5 announcement by Prime Minister David Thompson of the crackdown on undocumented Caricom nationals.
The new policy took immediate effect and those undocumented Caricom nationals living there for less than eight years prior to 2005 would be removed from the island.
Recounting her experience the woman told Stabroek News that it was about 2 o clock on a Saturday morning and she was half dressed and fast asleep when she heard a loud noise at the door and she and her reputed husband stayed down hoping that the people who were hitting at their door would leave.

But they keep hitting and they punched a hole in the door and used something to pull out the blind. One of them said, open the [censored] door is police and we looking for the drugs and the guns. I barely had on anything and they started tumbling up the house and somehow found our passports, the woman recounted.

She said they were told to pack and before they could really do much in that regard, they were told there was not much time and were ushered into a vehicle.

<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Raid brigade</span></span>
The brigade included police and members of a task force, she said, adding that only minutes later they carried out another raid all together rounding up a total of about 26 Guyanese. They were then all homeward bound. Many of them had come from the St. John's Parish.
The woman recounted that she and two other women, one from Albouystown and the other from Mahaicony, were the only women in the lot.
She said they were taken to a prison located behind the Grantley Adams International Airport where she was housed in a cold cell with women who were being held on drug charges and were awaiting a return trip home.

But there was a large amount of Guyanese in there, she emphasized.

<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">Own ticket</span></span>
She said she had to purchase her own ticket back home and if she were unable to do this, she would have had to work at the prison and come up with enough money to pay for her ticket.
She returned home on Sunday morning but unlike the other Guyanese who came back for the same purpose she was not ushered to Eve Leary. She said she was accosted by an immigration officer here who asked her to pass something. She said she bluntly told him she had nothing to pass and went along her way.

She had been living in Barbados for two and a half years and had been able to help relatives back home, including her seven-year-old daughter.
Now I have lost everything, a whole house full of appliances, clothes and so much more. I miss work because I could afford to do so much, now to come back home and just leave that, it's hard,the woman lamented.

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