American boat owners
fined over US $30,000
PHILIPSBURG--The two American owners of the boat Eco Cat have been made to pay more than US $30,000 in fines as a condition of their release from jail last week. The boat was confiscated when they were detained more than a week ago on charges of human smuggling.
Prosecutor Johan de Vrieze said the owners of the boat had brought citizens of the Philippines to work in St. Maarten and had paid them far less than the legal minimum wage. In addition, it was learnt that the boat owners were making the Filipinos pay back more than half their wages for expenses incurred to bring them to the island including travel expenses and room and board.
As a result, and strictly because it was a criminal matter, the Prosecutor’s Office contacted the Labour Department and in the end made the owners pay US $12,000 to the Filipinos as back pay for the time they short-paid them, and ordered that they pay taxes in excess of US $5,000 as legally required when employing people and operating a business.
They were also ordered to pay for return tickets for the Filipinos they had employed, as the Filipinos were not in possession of legal residence or work permits for the island.
De Vrieze said Sunday different arguments could be derived from the interpretation of the law against human smuggling, but “as long as you bring someone to the island by whatever means, be it boat or plane or you swam with them, on a profit basis without permits, that is human smuggling.
He also said the people being brought here were victims nearly all the time and while it was not the task of the Prosecutor’s Office to police businesses to ensure that they paid legal wages, when it became a criminal investigation “we are in a position to mediate and demand that these people be paid according to Antillean laws, because you put them to work in the Antilles and you ought to have known better.”
Attorney Remco Stomp, who represented the two owners and the boat captain, had alleged that their detention was illegal and reported last week Friday that his clients had been released from pre-trial detention. He had initiated legal proceedings to have his clients released after they were picked up by local authorities on suspicion that they were involved in smuggling persons from the Philippines.
The authorities reportedly first learnt of the operation after the captain reported that he was being threatened by a crew member. But while that matter was still unresolved, an investigation started to determine the accuracy of the allegations that the two owners were involved in smuggling people.
The investigation culminated with the arrest of the two owners and the captain, and the confiscation of the boat. As the fines have all been paid, the boat has now been released.
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