| Immigration reform goes forward | | Print | |
| Written by Richard Green/richard@fptci.com | |||
| Thursday, 17 February 2011 12:11 | |||
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The Ministry of Border Control and Labour is developing a business plan to rebuild the country’s Immigration Department to ensure objectivity and fairness, the governor’s Advisory Council was told at its Feb. 9 meeting on Grand Turk. The business plan will cover “issues from work permits to the streamlining of procedures and the documentation of policies to help ensure their consistent and fair implementation,” the council said in a statement. “The council welcomed plans for developing a clear policy framework for the Immigration Department which ensures objectivity and fairness.” The council congratulated Clara Gardiner, permanent secretary of Border Control and Labour, and Lorraine Rogerson, the government’s advisor on immigration, “for their approach to the transfer of knowledge and experience which the council noted was a key part of the current rebuilding process in the TCI.” The Immigration Department has been under scrutiny since the governor appointed a Tourism Working Group in 2009 to investigate how to better promote tourism. The group’s report in July urged an overhaul of immigration, which the group called “dysfunctional and a substantial liability to the country’s efforts to promote tourism.” One of the first changes came in October, when the ministry announced that it had suspended the use of travel letters “because of serious concerns about fraud, forgery and abuse, which threatened the good order and security of the islands.” Travel letters had been issued by the Immigration Department to various non-residents allowing them to enter and leave the country, a practice the ministry said was neither necessary nor described in Immigration Regulations. Then in November, the Public Service Commission placed Director of Immigration Alonzo Malcolm on indefinite leave while it considers an undisclosed disciplinary matter. The matter is still pending, but PSC Chairman Eugene Otuonye said the matter should be resolved shortly. In December the government removed the costly and time-consuming practice of requiring certain people to obtain employment visas so long as their work or residence permit has already been approved.
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