Dear Editor,
Since the recent announcement by the Barbados government of a new policy on immigration, there has been much heated debate locally and regionally. Much of the debate has been intellectually dishonest and has avoided the issues which have led to the new policy.
There has been repeated reference to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the CSME. However, no one has to date shown where these make provision for any country to accept the semi-educated, the unskilled as well as the drug dealers. In its editorial of May 18, 2009, The Sun newspaper of Dominica wrote “…despite the fact that Caricom has existed for 35 years, there remains no welcome mat at the doorstep of many Caricom countries for the people of their partner states.” How then can we explain that the several Caricom nationals have made Barbados their home unharassed over the years, including the same prominent opponents of Barbados’s immigration policy? In fact, it may surprise The Sun to learn that we have very eminent physicians long resident in Barbados who are born and bred Dominicans. We even recently welcomed one BC Pires fleeing from drug-infested, crime-ridden Trinidad, whose first act of gratitude was to write an article which insulted and denigrated the whole of Barbados. Sadly, the Barbados government chose not to deport Mr Pires in the way that the Antigua government had deported Lennox Linton.
Barbados wants people who have the intellectual capacity to assist this country to move forward, not riff-raff, criminals and drug dealers. Since the former Barbados Prime Minister’s ill-advised, self-serving open door immigration policy, we have had an influx of such unwanted persons with the resultant clogging up of our court system and prison, especially with drug dealers (just read the daily newspapers). It is also passing strange that opponents like Rickey Singh would repeatedly write articles about Barbados’s immigration policy and every conceivable subject in this region except the scourge of illegal drugs and its effect on this country with unchecked immigration. We should recall that some years ago, two brothers from Guyana were interdicted off the coast of Oistins with a fishing boat completely filled with illicit drugs, heading into Barbados. Check what is currently being reported from our courts. The countries which appear to complain the most about Barbados’s immigration policy have all been deemed major shipping points for illegal drugs by the US State Department. We do not want that for Barbados.
Barbados is one of the few Commonwealth countries where its citizens do not need visas to enter Canada and the UK, and soon other areas of Europe as well. Recently, the UK threatened to make Trinidadians apply for immigrant visas, just like Guyanese and Jamaicans. Why? That is one of the reasons all and sundry are running to Barbados in the hope that they can eventually obtain a Barbados passport.
But that poses a serious risk to Barbados losing its visa status with those countries.
The leaders (and journalists) of these Caricom countries are always complaining about the alleged mistreatment of their nationals by Barbados immigration and others.
But the greatest mistreatment of Guyanese (for example) is meted out to them in Guyana causing them to want to flee their country. We hear complaints that Guyanese in Barbados are treated inhumanely by being allegedly rented converted pig-pens. How is it possible that in the 21st century in Guyana, the Guyana government could allow Guyanese to live in shacks, and squat next to creeks in which they bathe alongside animals and use the same water to cook? How could any government allow its citizens to live in such an undignified state and talk about mistreatment?
Each Caricom leader must take responsibility for his citizens and seek to elevate their standard of living in their own country, not pass the buck to Barbados. That everyone wants to gravitate towards Barbados is testament to the fact that our successive government leaders have always demonstrated inspired, visionary leadership, unlike others who seem more idiosyncratic and clueless about how to provide a comfortable environment for their citizens to stop them from running to pull down other countries like Barbados.
Prime Minister Thompson, stand firm with your new policy as all Barbadians are supporting you on this, even Albert Branford and Mia Mottley.
Yours faithfully,
Troy Brathwaite
