Submission from Basil George, St Helena
A formal request is made by way of this email
to ask the Commission to take account of the matters raised in
this email and the contents of the letter I wrote to the two local
newspapers commenting on the submission that came from elected
members of council on St Helena.[281]
The submission by Councillors appeared in the local newspapers
on the 15 February.
I wish to draw particular attention to the following:
(a) Offshore Employment
Of concern is the social effect on children
of school age, especially teenagers, with about one in eight having
at least one parent away from home working offshore. Some of these
children have both parents working away from home.
(b) Housing
The move from an informal economy to one that
is market driven is happening far too rapidly and making more
Islanders leave to find employment overseas to have housing for
themselves and their families. The price of SHG land for family
housing plots for what is social housing increased in March last
year by some 2,000%.
(c) Fishing
The poaching in our waters is of grave concern.
In an editorial in the local paper The St Helena Independent last
weekend 22 February 2008, the editor noted that "... we,
almost daily, receive reports of unidentified foreign fishing
vessels being sighted close to our shores".
RECOMMENDATION
1. Island families
That the St Helena Government examines and gives
greater importance to the social implications of offshore employment
especially how it affects young people, and in the absence of
few council houses being built, facilitate Islanders building
their own family homes by making family house plots available
and affordable as one of the major approaches to allow Islanders
basic housing and an option for parents to stay and not leave.
2. Fishing
That the British Government sets up an inquiry
about poaching in the territorial waters of St Helena and through
the Government of St Helena consult the relevant fisheries organisations
on the Island, notably the fisheries section of the ANRD, the
Fisheries Co-operation and the Civil Society Fishermen's Association,
to gather data about illegal fishing.
Additional information should be obtained from
known satelite surveillence, including that on Ascension, a dependency
of St Helena. As a matter of urgence a case should be placed by
the British Government to the appropriate EU and/or UN body for
action to be taken against the companies and nations concerned.
In the 1999 White Paper on its Overseas Territories,
it shows that though the Overseas Territories are responsible
for their own local self-government, Britain is responsible for
external affairs, defence, and usually, internal security and
the public service ... (1.6). In the same paper it says that Britain
as an international player is "prepared to take tough decisions
to deal with complex and pointed international difficulties—and
where necessary, to back them with action" (1.3).
Britain has noted in the White Paper of the
"increased awareness of the isolation and economic problems
of some of the poorer territories—notably St Helena"
(1.7). Fishing is a key industry both locally and for export.
The present level of illegal fishing is cripling this industry
to the extent that currently Islanders can only purchase a limited
amount of tuna per family.
I write as an Islander having lived my life
on the Island, worked here, built my own family home and raised
a family. However the above matters I raised have also been raised
in a submission by the Citizenship Commission of which I am a
member is not just a personal view but reflects wider public opinion.
28 February 2008
281 This letter has not been published with the submission
since it is a publicly available document. Back
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