'Good response' to Govt's amnesty

by TRACY MOORE

THERE HAS been a "good response" to Government's amnesty regarding illegal immigrants.

Senator Arni Walters, Minister responsible for Labour and Immigration, made the comments on Sunday at the Democratic Labour Party's (DLP) St Michael joint meeting at Springer Memorial School.

He added that there was a Green Paper in the pipeline where the public would be able to comment on it, from as early as next month.

"There are a number of issues regarding CARICOM nations. The amnesty ends December 1. There has been a good response to this amnesty. Those applying for the amnesty who were here before 1998 will get a favourabe response. I have seen a number of them on my desk.

"There is also a number of skilled labour applications that will not have a difficulty with what the CSME [CARICOM Single Market and Economy] status will allow," he said.

He did not give numbers though on who had applied for the amnesty to date, but urged Barbadians to seek out and comment on the Green Paper which would be available from late December to early January.

In May, Prime Minster David Thompson announced an amnesty for thousands of undocumented CARICOM nationals in Barbados. He said, however, they must meet certain qualifying standards to regularise their immigration status, among them proof of employment, passing of background security checks, and substantiating a claim that they lived in Barbados for at least eight years prior to December 31, 2005.

Then three months ago, Thompson stated there was a backlog of up to 6 000 Caribbean nationals seeking immigrant status in Barbados.

He explained that Barbados had no choice but to regulate its immigration policy since the social services simply could not cope with a flood of immigrants.

l tracymoore@ nationnews.com