The United Bermuda Party will abolish the controversial term limits on work permits if it is elected into power said Opposition leader Grant Gibbons.

Dr. Gibbons said that they would find a better way to make sure Bermudians are fairly treated, while keeping the environment viable for international business.

He added that in fact, the term limits could lead to fewer opportunities for Bermudians as posts would be taken off the Island.

When asked by The Royal Gazette if the UBP would abolish term limits, he said: "I don't think term limits are the way to go. They are counter productive in the longer term."

There has been an outcry over the six-year limits policy for work permits - with business leaders claiming businesses have been making plans to leave Bermuda if they are implemented.

In today's Business section (see Page 23), Island lawyer Kelvin Hastings-Smith says that there is a climate of "concern and fear" in the business community about the looming 2007 cut-off date.

He also said that his firm, Appleby Spurling & Kempe, had seen that the move was already affecting its clients and companies were having problems recruiting - as well as losing staff at the moment - due to the restrictions imposed on guest workers.

In 2001, the policy came into effect which said that work permits would not be renewed beyond six years unless the employee was key, in which case it would be extended a further three years.

This will mean that all guest workers who were here in 2001 will have to leave in 2007 - unless they are granted an exemption and allowed to stay on until 2010. But there have been many questions over the limits and how they will affect both local and international business on the Island and who is key and not key in the eyes of the Government.

Dr. Gibbons said he understood politically why this Government was imposing term limits: "I understand that they are probably desperate right now, because that percentage of non-Bermudians has gone from 23 percent up to something like 27 percent of the workforce.

"But I think this approach has not been thought through very carefully and in the short to medium term it will result in a lot fewer opportunities for Bermudians because these jobs will simply be moved somewhere else."

There has been a general outcry against the term limits from the business community. The Bermuda Employers' Council said that the term limits were pushing companies off the Island, while head of the Chamber of Commerce Economics division Kit Astwood said that this immigration policy was pandering to the "political racists".

David Ezekiel of the Association of Bermuda International Companies said that the issue was "critical" to the businesses set up on the Island and that the points of the policy had to be clarified. The International Business Forum - a group of business leaders - said it was looking at ironing out the problems with the policy with the Ministry and the Minister of Labour and Home Affairs Terry Lister.

Mr. Lister has said that he personally would like to see a cap of nine years - and no more - put on work permits. And he said he made no apology for putting Bermudians first, but acknowledged there was a problem and it had to be resolved.

Premier Jennifer Smith has said the work permit limit was nine and not six years. Ms Smith had also been asked about the work permit limit policy - but referred The Royal Gazette to "the Act" and when asked "does this mean that Brian O'Hara (boss of XL Capital) would have to leave the Island by 2010?" She said: "You have a copy of the Act, read it. Now you are just mischief making". Questions to Mr. Lister regarding this implications of this statement have gone unanswered.

As far as The Royal Gazette is aware, there is no "Act" in regard to term limits and it is in fact a policy that was introduced by Paula Cox in 2000 intended to help Bermudians get fair treatment in the workforce.

Dr. Gibbons said: "Whether you talk to Bermudians, or whether you talk to international business, the current immigration approach does not seem to be serving either side terribly well. I am not saying it is not working at all. We need to bring a lot more transparency to the process, we also need to improve the efficiency of the process, both for Bermudians and for international business."

When asked if he would make the system quicker, he said: "(The UBP would) make decision making faster so that people have a very clear sense of what is going on."