Submission from Jonathan Suter, Bermuda
THE SITUATION OF PERMANENT RESIDENT CARD
HOLDERS IN BERMUDA
Below is a letter I have written to the Foreign
Affairs Committee for their inquiry into Human Rights in the Overseas
Territories. The submission outlines the situation of Permanent
Resident Card holders in Bermuda, and the denial of their right
to participate in parliamentary elections. I am writing this as
a concerned individual, who has Bermuda status.
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to you today about the situation
of Permanent Resident Card (PRC) holders in Bermuda, who are denied
the right to vote and thus, are denied the right to fully participate
in society.
A PRC entitles the holder to live and work in
Bermuda without the need for a work permit, but does not give
them the right to participate in parliamentary elections. Obtaining
a PRC is by no means an easy thing to achieve. The individual
must have lived continuously on the island for at least 20 years
and remained an upstanding member of the community. There are
many countries where permanent residents, who are not citizens,
have the right to vote; examples include Barbados, Jamaica, Grenada,
Antigua, Barbuda, and the UK, New Zealand, Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia,
and Guyana, each with their own residence requirements.
Considering that the overwhelming majority of
PRC holders would have arrived and continued to work in Bermuda
under a work permit, which are only issued in the interests of
strengthening the Bermudian economy, it can be deduced that PRC
holders have made and continue to make a significant contribution
to the community through their work, their involvement in community
organisations, and overall, the contribution to the growth of
the Bermudian economy. This contribution is by no means a fleeting
one. They have spent over 20 years making Bermuda their home.
The current Government will argue that by giving
PRC holders the right to vote, you would be opening the flood
gates to more and more individuals being eligible for gaining
this right, and this would somehow disadvantage Bermudians. Firstly,
given restrictions now in place on work permit lengths, it is
unlikely that many individuals will have the slightest chance
of staying in Bermuda for the requisite 20 years to obtain permanent
residency. Secondly, PRC holders already have the right to live
and work in Bermuda, therefore giving them the right to vote does
not put any further pressure on the housing market or lend itself
to any of the xenophobic rhetoric concerning foreigners `taking
away' jobs from Bermudians. Therefore, the only significant impact
would be that PRC holders would have the opportunity to participate
in the democratic process. The current Government would argue
that this would somehow dilute the voting right of Bermudians.
Yet, looking at the numbers, the number of PRC holders is about
5% of the voting population (2,000/42,000), which is just more
than a fifth of the voting population who didn't participate in
the past election of December 2007, (which roughly had a 76% participation
rate). PRC holders should have the right to hold the government
accountable. They are not simply guests on the islands; they have
been contributing members of society for over 20 years! Wouldn't
such individuals have effectively earned their right to vote and
hold government accountable after such a period?
It is an absolute embarrassment that the Bermuda
Government cannot afford these hardworking and well-deserving
individuals one of the basic human rights of participation. Many
of these individuals have made Bermuda their one and only home,
and don't have a right to vote anywhere else in the world. By
failing to provide these individuals with the opportunity to participate
in government elections, you are denying them one of the fundamental
elements of any democracy. What is more, many of these PRC holders
have children who were born in Bermuda, whom after their 18th
birthday received Bermudian status, affording them the right to
vote.
Giving PRC holders the right to vote is about
giving them the respect and dignity that they deserve, to be able
to actively participate in the democratic processes of these wonderful
islands that they have helped to build, and that they have called
home for more than 20 years.
I therefore ask you to advise the Bermuda Government
to take action to provide Bermuda PRC holders with the right to
participate in parliamentary elections, so that they are no longer
made to feel like second-class citizens.
15 January 2008
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