Submission from Kathi Barrington, Turks
and Caicos Islands
ISSUES THAT
I AM CONCERNED
ABOUT
1. Transparency in granting Belongerships/approving
Permanent Resident Certificates (See attached notes when you have
time).
2. Elections: Those who have been granted
Belongership are finding it difficult to have their names added
to the Electoral List. Rules change and are not published.
3. Less than 7,000 voters decide the fate
of over 30,000 people.
4. Protection of the Environment: It would
appear that development approval is not based on any reasonable
protection of the natural resources which have made this country
prosperous. The Leeward Marina and Star Island Projects, the development
of Bonefish Point, the development on Long Bay Beach, the total
development of Grace Bay and the Bight, the selling outright of
small islands—are perhaps an indication that the future
is of no value to those making these decisions.
5. The Domestic Fire Service on Provo has
been merged with Civil Aviation's Fire Service. (At government's
insistence and against the advice of the Chief Fire Officer, Chris
Gannon, who put the department together and made it work.
6. Government spending: On projects/entertainments/vehicles/planes/helicopters
to show the world that the TCI is a high-end destination. Lack
of spending on schools—especially the primary schools and
the salaries of the teachers.
7. The delay in the hospital projects.
8. Rising Crime: Despite figures indicating
decrease in crime, the escalation of the seriousness of the crimes
is a huge concern with devastating potential fallout for tourism,
never mind the safety of residents.
TO MEMBERS
OF THE
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
COMMITTEE
I apologize for this lengthy account of our
experiences with the governments of the TCI.
I hope you will find the time to read it. There is
no exaggeration, and it is as brief as possible
10 October 2006
The following is an account of our attempts
to obtain permanent legal status in the Turks & Caicos, where
we have lived since February 1985.
On 13 October 2000, Michael applied for PRC
with the right to work. The application was submitted by Conrad
Griffiths, QC, of Misick & Stanbrook and the application was
under the then Immigration Ordinance Paragraph 3(2) and (c) of
Schedule 2. This was an application under the Skilled Worker category
and the fee was $5,000.00.
In mid 2001, after numerous attempts by telephone
and letter to find out the disposition of the application, I was
able to get an answer. Michael's PRC application had been put
on hold because the department had decided that the fee he should
pay was NOT $5,000.00 for a skilled worker, but $10,000.00 for
a person who owns their own business. At no time previous to this
telephone conversation, did the department communicate this information
to us, despite our many calls.
We regrouped and started saving toward the new
fee.
In November of 2001, following the advice of
the Immigration Department's PRC/Belongership Office in Grand
Turk, we both applied for both Belongership and PRC's with the
right to work. This was Michael's second application for a PRC.
On 1 December 2001 we moved into the house we
had been building in Long Bay.
3 May 2002 we received a letter signed by Derek
Been, informing us that the request for Belongerships had been
refused.
1 August 2002: The PDM Government increased
the cost of the PRC in our category from $10,000.00 to $50,000.00.
At the end of September 2002 we received a letter
dated 20 August 2002, signed by Barbara Higgs, stating that our
PRC's had been refused at the Executive Council Meeting of 24
July 2002, paper No 02/105, Minute #811/02. No reason for the
refusal was given. The letter stated: "Please note that you
are eligible to reapply after six months after the date of this
letter". As you can see by the timing of the refusal (24
July) a new application would fall under the new rate of $50,000.00.
On 2 August I wrote a letter to then Minister
responsible for Immigration, O O Skippings, petitioning a review
of the PRC decision. I also wrote to the then Governor who responded
sympathetically but did not have any suggestions. Numerous letters
and telephone calls and requests for meetings with Minister Skippings
were unanswered.
In August 2003, the PDM party left office and
the PNP took charge. I made an appointment with the new Minister
responsible for Immigration, Mr Jeffrey Hall. We met in the late
Fall 2003 to talk about our difficulty in establishing the Turks
& Caicos as our permanent legal residence and asked for advice.
He indicated that things were changing and to be patient and it
would all be worked out.
The Blue Ribbon Commission on Immigration took
place and the published report indicated that the Commission felt
that "old-timers" (residents of 15-20 years without
permanent legal status) should be regularized.
May 2004 we met with Minister Jeffrey Hall and
again he voiced the opinion that that we would soon be able to
attain permanent legal status that we could actually afford. He
told us that a new office would handle people like us (old timers).
It was announced, I think in the summer of 2004,
that Donhue Gardner would open an office on Provo to handle the
PRC/Belongership applications. I spoke to him in October and November
2004 and he said to come and see him as soon as his office was
ready. I think his office opened in December 2004 or January 2005
and we then met with Donhue Gardiner at his new office in Caribbean
Place.
Because he was the man in charge of this regularizing
process, and had been hired by the Government to carry it out,
we naturally took his advice and applied for Belongership, rather
than the PRC. Once more we had the blood test, obtained the police
record, got the bank reference letters and supplied two photographs
each, and asked our Belonger friends to write yet another letter
of recommendation/endorsement. Thankfully, they all did so willingly
and sympathized with our long wait.
Feeling that we were on the right track, finally,
I only occasionally checked with Donhue Gardiner about the applications.
He assured me that the paperwork was complete and had been forwarded
to the appropriate persons in Grand Turk. Twice we were told that
the matter had gone before Executive Council but that the amount
of business at these sessions was so great that our application
had been deferred to a future session.
As, one by one, long time friends in the same
boat, received notification that their PRC's or Belongerships
had been granted, we became worried.
On 17 November 2005, I met again with Minister
Jeffrey Hall. While I waited, he obtained the information that
our application had been deferred until March 2006. However, he
told me that he would pull our application himself, show a letter
I had been written to him (copy enclosed) to the relevant Ministers
and make sure the application was heard at the very next ExCo
meeting. I was overjoyed.
On 23 November 2005, Michael received a telephone
call from the PRC/Belongership Office in Provo, informing him
that Executive Council had approved our Belongership application
and to please bring the $300 each fee and two photographs of each
of us to the office so they could put the notice in the newspapers.
We complied the next day, 24 November.
We called everyone who had been cheering us
on over five years of applying, and then called all our family,
in Canada, the USA, Hong Kong, Scotland. Everyone was so happy
for us, but not nearly as happy as we were. Home was finally,
permanently, legally HOME.
Michael's then current work permit expired on
22 December 2005. Obviously, he did not renew it, as there was
no longer any need for it.
Some of the people who appeared in the newspapers
started getting their Belonger Certificates. We had heard nothing.
In March we started hearing rumours that something
was amiss in the Belongership department.
I called the Governor's Office and was advised
to contact the Deputy Director of Immigration, Mr Alonzo Malcolm.
I did so, and faxed him the particulars of our payment and the
ExCo meeting which granted us Belongership. He told me he would
follow up and let me know.
Since then, he has called twice and I have contacted
him perhaps ten times to see what was happening but he was unable
to ascertain why we had not yet received our Belongership Certificates,
as so many of our friends had.
On 15 May I had an appointment with the new
Minister for Immigration, the Honorable Galmo Williams. Gilley
told me that he would look into the matter and get back to me
the following day. I realize Ministers are very busy people and
there was the Budget on top of regular work.
So I waited, and having heard nothing despite
leaving messages for the Minister, I made another appointment
with the Minister, for 8 June 2006.
At that meeting Gilley was amazed that no one
from Immigration or the Belongership/PRC Office (which we were
sitting in) had called to tell us that our Application had been
deferred AGAIN.
He apologized, saying that the government had
made a mistake in approving some applications but he did not tell
us why we had again been deferred.
He suggested that we re-apply for PRC's with
the right to work. Because we are now living in a legal status
limbo, we cannot travel without first going through the three
to five day process of getting a travel letter. We cannot open
a bank account.
Another piece of fallout from government's "mistake"
is that we have mortgaged ourselves to finance a guest house,
on the strength that we had legal status here. Knowing that we
would not be paying $50,000 for a PRC or the annul $7,000 fees
for our work permits gave us the freedom to handle the financial
commitment of a fairly large mortgage.
So we hired a Belonger contractor in early April
and got started on the house.
Upon the advice of the Minister for Immigration,
and our lawyer, Conrad Griffiths, we assembled 40 some documents—most
of them notarized, and applied for a PRC under the Assimilated
Persons category (which is the category that Minister Galmo Williams
told us to apply under). I handed in all the documents and a table
of contents and covering letter, on 5 or 6 July 2006.
We have lived here and supported this country
for almost 22 years. For six years we have tried every legal channel
to acquire permanent legal status. We have met every one of the
often changing requirements and we have acted in good faith through
two different administrations.
It is now 10 October 2006 and we have heard
nothing from anyone about our application for a PRC.
UPDATE
28 February 2008
We received notification in a letter dated 20
January 2007 that our PRC, with the right to work (for both of
us) had been approved on 22 November 2006. However, the category
had been changed to Skilled Worker and the fee, rather than $5,000.00
was $30,000.00.
We received that letter four business days before
9 February 2007 elections. Rather than risk all by waiting until
after the election and applying to have the amount reduced, (as
many others had done earlier when faced with the same situation),
we paid the government $30,000.00 on 6 February 2007. (Our savings
plus funds borrowed from a dear friend).
In early May we received the Permanent Residents
Certificate, with the Right to work for each of us.
In December 2007, January and February 2008, the
papers again started publishing the notices/photos of those whom
the government was granting Belongerships. So I wrote to Immigration
Minister Williams, reminding him that the government had promised
us that they would reconsider our Belongership "sometime
in the future". After delivering letters to his constituency
office on 5 February and then again on 11 February, asking for
his advice, I called him on his cell. Gilley called back the next
day and when he discovered who the caller was, he was abrupt.
He said that the "Regularization period"
was over and that Belongerships are granted now, not applied for.
After I pressed him, he did say he would bring the matter up at
the next Cabinet Meeting.
12 March 2008
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