The decision to abolish term limits in Bermuda has not triggered an influx of offshore businesses to return to Bermuda, but it has stopped the flow of businesses pulling out of the country.Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy made the claim several months after Government made the announcement, that they were to scrap term limits, at a standing room only public meeting in February.In an exclusive interview with The Royal Gazette after his first six months on the job, just weeks after he announced increased powers to ticket work permit policy offenders, the Minister sat down to discuss new Immigration Policies in Bermuda.In part one of a series on ‘Immigration Matters’, he said rogue employers make up ten to 15 percent of employers in Bermuda who need to know that this is not a witch hunt, although frequent offenders will be listed in a public register.Sen Fahy said the only “real deterrent” will be to hit offenders in their wallets with $5,000 fines for violations.When asked for the highs and lows of his first six months in office, he pointed to the march on Parliament Hill shortly after the termination of term limits was announced as an all-time low.After promising a review of the policy, an estimated 300 people packed St Paul AME Church Hall in February 13 to hear the new One Bermuda Alliance Government’s plans to abolish term limits. The move prompted a march on Parliament on March 1.Said Sen Fahy: “It was a baptism by fire if you will, you live and learn in terms of some of these things. I think we made the right decision. I think the Government made the right decision in getting rid of term limits; it was the right thing to do. It’s helped stop the flow of companies from leaving Bermuda.”“We said all along that we will crack down on rogue employers who abuse work permit policy. We said we were going to get rid of term limits, and when we did it, we said that in exchange we will be more robust in making sure that work permit policy is enforced to encourage training for Bermudians.”As a litigation attorney in a “prior life” he said he has also seen the tailor-made advertisements placed by employers to skirt the law.“Most employers follow the rules, let’s make that clear. But what we have to do is make it very clear that we will not tolerate people lying in respect of what requirements are needed for that particular job.“I’ve seen it repeatedly and we basically will not grant work permits in those circumstances; if we believe that there is an ad that is very specific for that individual, no.”He noted that there is a diverse Immigration Board in place that comprises a broad cross-section of the community.“We have someone from the union, we have someone who is from the IT world, we’ve got a couple of people from reinsurance, we have an attorney on the board. We have someone from the hotels, the banks, we have a robust board, they meet every week.“You’ll get your repeat violators who do their tailored ads or they will make applications where they say they will hire a Bermudian. They will hire a Bermudian but they’ll say we still need this work permit holder. And then the little trick is that three months down the road that Bermudian is let go and that guest worker stays on the job. And it’s across the board, there’s no one area that is more violating than another,” he said.While noting that a “lot of permits were handed out in the boom times” between the year 2000 through to 2007, Sen Fahy did not mince words on the problems placed at his Ministry’s door today.“It was under a previous Government that massive numbers of work permits were granted that were unprecedented in Bermuda’s history,” he said.“I find it odd that a previous Government can complain about the initiatives that we’re bringing forward when they had every opportunity to do it themselves.“They had every opportunity to change work permit policy to encourage employers to train Bermudians and they didn’t. They had every opportunity to increase the Chief Immigration Officer’s powers to investigate and fine and they didn’t.“They could’ve have fixed some of these problems. The previous Government should have seen the writing on the wall about what was going to this economy and they ignored it. And let’s stop blaming the international economy when Bermuda could have done better. I mean, the writing on the wall is obvious. There is in my view, a lot to blame on the previous administration fully.”* In part two of this report Sen Fahy discusses the recurring criticism that non-skilled guest workers continue to be employed in the face of unemployed Bermudians.