~ BTA process to be unlinked from Work Permit Policy ~

PHILIPSBURG--The Executive Council is expected to handle next week a proposal to correct a snag in the Brooks Tower Accord (BTA) process that has prevented many applicants from qualifying for Brooks Tower permits.

The proposal, which will be submitted to the Executive Council next week, recommends "separating" the BTA process from the Island's employment permit policy, Leader of Government Commissioner William Marlin explained Thursday.

Marlin said he also planned to have a proposal presented to the Executive Council to further review the present employment permit policy, which his government had amended after it took office last June.

He told The Daily Herald that during the preparatory talks on the execution of the BTA process, the former Democratic Party (DP) Executive Council had informed the Justice Minister that it wanted to link the Brooks Tower process to the Island Territory's employment permit policy, which the former government had made more stringent just before demitting office.

This meant that persons who did not already qualify for employment permits could not obtain BTA permits, Marlin explained, adding that this in itself defeated the whole purpose of the BTA process.

Marlin, who has been taking responsibility for Justice matters, said this was totally unfair and an affront to the BTA process, as it meant that persons who had been residing here for years, but did not qualify for employment permits, would not come into consideration for BTA permits.

This decision of the former government has resulted in the applications of many persons being stalled in the process.

Marlin has held two lengthy meetings with Justice Minister Magali Jacoba in recent days, discussing his concerns about the BTA process. He said that as a result of those meetings it had been agreed to correct the snag and he would be submitting a proposal "to detach the two, because if you don't, it will defeat the purpose of the Brooks Tower Accord process."

Marlin said the BTA process was intended to give undocumented immigrants who had been residing here for years the opportunity to "come above water" and "get the legal instrument to move around freely in St. Maarten."

"More importantly it gave them the freedom to leave the island to get the necessary documents and paperwork needed to apply for a work and residence permit through the regular channels," he said.

"By attaching the Brooks Tower Accord process to the employment permit policy, which meant that these persons have to also qualify for a work permit, totally defeats the purpose and this has created stagnation because there are a good bit of permits awaiting a positive advice for a work permit before they can continue the process," Marlin explained.

"Hopefully in the Executive Council meeting next week, that decision will be taken to separate the two so as to no longer carry out the policy that way [as it was originally negotiated] to speed up the process and give these people the opportunity that the Brooks Tower intended to give them."

About plans for further review of the current employment permit policy, Marlin said: "We believe there are still certain elements in the labour policy that need to be reviewed and adjusted and to bring the labour policy in line with the consequences of the Brooks Tower Accord, or else you would create quite some frustration for people who today qualify for the Brooks Tower and then find themselves after living here for years being told at the end of the process that they have to leave based on the labour policy."

The BTA process was initiated in 2009 to give the thousands of undocumented persons who had been residing and working in St. Maarten since before 2005 an opportunity to regularise their status.

"From the inception I have always insisted and indicated that the rules be applied differently here than in Curaçao," Marlin said.

In the meantime, opposition Democratic Party (DP) is interested in hearing from government how it intends to handle this matter. This had been a point on Thursday's Island Council meeting that was cancelled because there was no quorum.

Labour Commissioner Hyacinth Richards was present in Dr. A.C. Wathey Legislative Hall at the time the meeting should have taken place, but did not sign in so the meeting could proceed.