The Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL) has issued a call for all undocumented Caricom nationals living in Barbados to regularize their status and has urged law enforcers to treat each case dispassionately.
Monday is the deadline for all undocumented non-nationals living on the island to make themselves available to the immigration department for consideration for regularisation following an announcement by Prime Minister David Thompson. The move is part of the government’s effort to clamp down on illegal immigrants.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the CCL said that to publicly attack the efforts of the Thompson administration without seeking first to have constructive engagement could be seen as a process of undermining the sovereignty of Barbados.
It further stated that the argument that the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is in crisis because of Barbados’ action has no place in the debate. “What we should be confronting and debating are the failures of some Caricom governments in discharging their responsibility to their citizens… We cannot have governments in this region who are prepared to put systems in place to force their citizens to migrate to other countries by abrogating their responsibility to create jobs for their citizens,” the statement said.
Compiled by its General Secretary Lincoln Lewis, the CCL statement also noted the body’s concern over whether the posture embraced by some leaders in reaction to Barbados’s position will help in sustaining the current integration process.
It said too that any argument for the free movement of persons without management could be seen as being irresponsible. “The CCL therefore urges that free movement under the CSME must be done within the context of a regional economic plan.
It is known that every country is involved in national planning and every added person that provision has not been made for under this planning, increases the shock on the country’s social system. These are the issues that help to create and increase inner city slums, xenophobia and crime,” it said.
From the trade union standpoint, CCL said it sees any process that encourages illegal immigrants as one where individuals would be exploited in the form of low wages and poor working conditions, which ultimately would contribute to suppression of wages and working conditions that fly in the face of the Decent Work Agenda in the Caribbean.
It noted too that the problems that confront us must be seen as a shared responsibility by respective Caribbean governments.
Last weekend, President Bharrat Jagdeo at a special meeting of Caricom Heads raised the matter with Thompson. Jagdeo said he went to the meeting to ensure the rights of his people living in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago are not trampled upon by immigration authorities there.
If in another few days the undocumented Guyanese and other Caricom nationals do not to turn themselves into immigration authorities to be considered for regularisation of their status they will be “removed” by December 1 this year.
Many Guyanese in Barbados are employed in the informal sector and construction and despite some level of exploitation from some employers, are said to be hard and reliable workers.
Many families here are supported by relatives living there and so would be affected financially and otherwise if many of them were to be sent home.
One man with whom this newspaper spoke was like many others awaiting a work permit.
He said that whether he receives his permit or not, he will return home as he is no longer encouraged to “weather the storm.” He has been involved in construction work for the last five years and has never faced any delay in the issuance of his work permit until now.
“I have been able to get much for myself and family while working here and for the first time in my life I have been able to save,” he said. “But I don’t know what’s next and so I will go home and hope that I am able to find a job, but I know this will drop my standard of living.”
He admitted that sometimes some Guyanese “ make it bad for others” but said he felt the general feeling was that “we are hard working people and will do any lil work to get we money.”