Long Term Residents Coalition calls it a day
While calling for Government and Opposition politicians to put an end to the separation of long term resident’s families, spokesman Robert Pires said this week that The Long Term Residents’ Coalition is folding after momentum has slowed in the battle for members’ rights.The enactment of the Bermuda Immigration and Protection Ammendment Act 2002 marked a watershed in activity and interest in long term residents’ issues, and politically it remains on the back burner.While the former United Bermuda Party had put forward a policy of moving some long term residents towards citizenship, the One Bermuda Alliance has not expressed an opinion and the 2002 law passed by a PLP Government ‘inhibits’ it, according to a Department of Immigration policy statement.The organisation, consisting initially of members The Jamaican Association and The West Indian Association who proposed joining forces with the Vasco da Gama Club, sprang to prominence in 2000 to press for Bermuda status for long term residents and their children. After a series of acriminous meetings organised by the Government, which Mr Pires described as “very non-constructive, unpleasant events”, and the subsequent passage of the Act, interest faded.At the first meeting on the issue, Mr Pires, who was in attendance, said: “... the BIU collected their members and positioned them throughout the audience. When someone tried to speak in support of long term residents, particularly if they were white, BIU members would try to intimidate them or shout them down.” He said this occurred despite the fact that two thirds of the Coalition’s membership was black. “It was the unpleasant atmosphere at the meetings which discouraged people from attending,” he said.The alternative to folding the Coalition would have been to set up a charity to fund legal cases pertaining to long term residency issues.“If we were to fight these battles we would have to be able to solicit funds, and to do that we would need to set up a charity, and the Government wouldn’t let us set up a charity so we were at a loss as to how to fund a legal battle. At some point we have to give up the fight.”“(Now) we are just financing our website, which costs a certain amount. In 2012, it’s important to let the public know the website is going down and that we are donating the money.”The Coalition had received gifts of money, which is not being used, so members unanimously agreed that it should be directed toward the education of the children of the various organisations which participated in the Coalition.“We have asked Vasco da Gama to give their portion to Portuguese language studies. The West Indian Association and the Jamaican Association are free to do with it what they will, but we have asked that it go toward education, and they have concurred. The children are the ones that have suffered the most - we disregard the fact that for most of their life they have grown up and been educated in Bermuda, especially when in some cases many family members have gained the right to be here.”Useful website:www.longtermresidents.com
The issues which brought the Long Term Residents Coalition together have not disappeared, says spokesman Robert Pires.Recently there have been cases of individuals with close relatives that are either Bermudian or PRC holders, but are not eligable for Bermuda Status or permanent residency.In the aftermath of the Parliamentary debate on the 2002 Act, the Coalilition released a statement which said: “... the White Paper leaves considerable gaps, which exclude large numbers of long term residents, not only from status, but also from the long promised Permanent Residency Certificate (PRC).”Describing the gaps as “chasms of despair” for long term residents, the Coalition said it did not bring closure to the issue as the previous Throne Speech had promised.However, Mr Pires said this week: “The Coalition became moot once the policy was set. There was not too much we could do about it. Politicians from both sides of the House of Assembly are not interested in it. It's a human rights issue and it is not a responsible approach to merely ship people off the Island, particularly if the majority of their family are here. In fact, a point system would be a very good way of addressing this.“The term limit policy (that limits residency via work permit renewals to a total of nine years) comes from the fact that the British Government has instructed its dependent territories that anyone with more than ten year residency will have to be given citizenship should a dependent territory go independent. The PLP Government denies that they received such instruction although (former Government Minister) Renee Webb confirmed this fact to your paper, and the Cayman Government openly acknowledges that this is a requirement.“They knew that the British Government would not tolerate the long term resident issue to continue as it was for much longer, so they had to make some concessions. I think they made minimal concessions and as a consequence, problems exist today. Government's band aid solution has been the term limit policy which has been most destructive to Bermuda's business environment.”While Mr Pires would not describe the activities of the Coalition as a complete success, he said: “In actual fact, it was a success in that people of different ethnic backgrounds came together for a common cause which I think was a bit threatening to the Government.”Mr. Pires concluded: “It's time for a clean-up of the legislation to fill in the gaps and make sure that families are not separated. As the UBP has stated, there should be some progression towards citizenship. It's been ten years, but that's for the politicians and their constituents to get behind - they get paid to fight these battles.”
