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Government Of Barbados Addresses The Illegal Immigrant Issue

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Prime Minister of Barbados Hon David Thompson
Prime Minister of Barbados Hon David Thompson

Prime Minister David Thompson issued a ministerial statement in parliament today regarding the immigration issue. For some time now it has been apparent to sensible Barbadians that the national security of Barbados had become breached given the large undocumented number of immigrants living in Barbados. It was an election campaign issue and on assuming office Prime Minister David Thompson appointed a sub-committee of Cabinet of which he was Chairman to investigate and make recommendations to government to relieve the problem.

Barbados will deport illegal immigrants who do not seek to regularize their status under a new policy – see CANA Report.

BU agrees with the measured and humane manner which the Thompson led government has approached this issue. While it is easy to lobby to deport all illegal immigrants, there is an understanding that many of the illegal immigrants have been living in Barbados for so long that it would be inhuman to uproot those people summarily.

But here are a few BU concerns:

The proposed shake-up at the immigration Department i.e. the officers responsible for enforcing the immigration laws of Barbados MUST be implemented in a transparent manner. It is known around Barbados that many of our current officers now maintain harems given their godlike powers to determine if an illegal immigrant is ‘fingered’ or not. We should not forget those who use their influence to satisfy the rich and powerful by prostituting themselves for the almighty dollar.

The law must deal harshly with those corrupt immigration officers who use their powers for personal gain. Equally those employers all across our country who employ illegal immigrants should be made to feel the full weight of the law as well.

While the Prime Minister has made a step in the right direction as always the devil will be in the detail.

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267 responses to “Government Of Barbados Addresses The Illegal Immigrant Issue”

  1. Madd Maxx Avatar
    Madd Maxx

    I agree with the PM’s stance.
    These illegal immigrants are coming to Barbados and remaining unchecked and although many do come looking for honest work, they are still hundreds who are coming here to engage in unsavoury activities.
    I have been to other Caribbean islands and these people are not as welcoming as many who have replied to this post have made them out to be.
    I was in Antigua for a vacation as a little girl when Hurricane Louis was heading to Barbados and heard big adults saying that they ‘hope the hurricane mash up Barbados, them bajans feel them better than anybody else’. Many bajans who work in other Caribbean islands can relate how these people have a deep seated hatred towards bajans.
    Indeed, if one were to sit amongst the non-nationals at UWI Cave Hill (without letting on you are bajan) one would hear how they hate Barbados and everything Bajan…but yet still would end up finding well paying jobs here upon graduation.
    I am tired of people of other islands saying that we shouldn’t take a tougher stance on immigration, while they treat bajans with disrespect.
    These people know how sweet life in Barbados is, but yet somehow still grudge us.
    There was a time when non-nationals were hard workers and kept to themselves, but I have noticed a worrying trend where the younger ones are into criminal activity.
    We already have enough to deal with in terms of our home-grown criminals and can do without getting more crime from these non-nationals.
    Now I may not be able to quote sections of the immigration act or what this politician said. I am speaking from an average bajans point of view.
    The illegal immigrants, whether Guyanese, African, Trini, Jamaican, American, Russian, Columbian etc, must either get their papers in order or get out.

  2. Ruel Daniels Avatar
    Ruel Daniels

    Bajan Born Wrote:

    Bush tea, re your above correction about consuls’ responsibilities, you could see the mentality of people running this BU operation. As for the “atrocities” , as “David” writes, committed against minorities in Guyana. Where he get that from ?. The so called McDougall report,I suppose. He (or she) won tell you that was drawn up by one person running aound Guyana on a two day visit co-ordinated be a long time anti-government body called the Guyana Human Rights group. Her report was basically parroting opposition PNC [propaganda. The so called UN expert didn’t include the real minorities in Guyana such as the Amerindians and Chinese. As for the so called Democratic Institute in New York posting its one sided nonsesnse, you ever looked into the (PNC aligned ) history of its one man spoekesperson ?
    Oh yes. Ricky Singh column is right on. And kudos to the postings on the healthy nature of introducing new genes . Here wha happen; I gon to change my name from “Bajan Born” to being a member of the Progressive Union Miscgenation Party (PUMP). Negroman and others suffering from xenophobia I sorry fuh yuh (if yuh can’t change yuh racism)…….hehehehehehehe.
    **************************************

    You Barbadians must check out the UN conventions on Indigenous groups and you will discover that there is a special arrangements for investigation of discrimination against these people. Ms McDougal was not charged with this task, neither is she attached to the special department that investigate complaints of indigenous groups.

    This is an example of the backwardness and dishonesty of the PPP ignars who keep harping about this. Because they do not read and understand the UN conventions, they believe people on this board are as ignorant as them.

    The rights and concerns of Indigenous Groups are dealth under quote, Convention (No. 169) concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples
    in Independent Countries
    Adopted on 27 June 1989 by the General Conference of the International Labour
    Organisation at its seventy-sixth session
    entry into force 5 September 1991.

    Articles 1 to 44 are specific to the concerns of Indigenous groups. This was not part of the mandate of Ms McDougal’s investigations in Guyana. The PPP are bringing up the indigenous peoples in Guyana to divert attention from their blatant racist and discriminatory style of Governance. Don’t let Lion the Liar Faria fool alyuh. This guy lies like a cheap watch.

  3. Adrian Hinds Avatar
    Adrian Hinds

    INDIANS DOING WHAT IS IN THE INTEREST OF INDIANS

    Look Thompy do not pay nuh mind to that hermaphroditic woman, don’t not pay any attention to that INDIAN Ricky Singh, or Faria the fool. Don’t even worry about boy blue, we know with what he thinks when it comes to the illegal immigrant situation.

    ————————————————-

    Article
    India Sends the Foreign Pilots Back Home

    By NIRAJ SHETH
    NEW DELHI — India’s airlines, in a slump, are sending the following message to the cockpit: Foreign pilots, go home.

    It’s an abrupt turnaround from the past several years, when Western pilots looked to growing markets like India as saviors for their profession. While carriers in the U.S. and Europe struggled with the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, India was opening its skies to new domestic carriers — and hiring hundreds of foreign pilots to fill the new planes with experienced fliers.

    But in the past several months, India’s airline industry has contracted as the economic crisis has hit. Now, the industry is trying to cut costs.

    Part of the solution: Firing expensive, though often more experienced, foreign pilots. India’s government has effectively endorsed the purge. In March, it ordered airlines to get rid of all foreign pilots by July 2010.

    The purge is the latest in a string of similar moves around the world, as governments try to reduce the number of foreign workers to free up jobs for native-born citizens. In Malaysia, the government has frozen recruitment of workers from overseas in some sectors and asked employers to lay off foreigners instead of locals. Australia has said it intends to cut its intake of skilled migrants by 14% amid rising unemployment. Last month, the Irish government said it was imposing rules to make it tougher for foreigners to get and renew work permits.

    Such moves are making life harder for employers that have relied on overseas workers to keep costs low or make up for shortages of skilled labor. The restrictions are also creating new hardships for the workers themselves. Many made enormous sacrifices to travel abroad in search of better employment and new opportunities.

    For pilots, India’s decision has raised a troubling question: If even growth markets like India won’t hire pilots, who will?

    Last year, in the twilight of his 45-year flying career, Svein Brendefur arrived in New Delhi with a single goal. “There was one thing I wanted very much that I wasn’t able to do,” the 64-year-old Norwegian says. “That was to fly the latest-generation planes.”

    After a career that included stints as a fighter pilot during the Cold War and at a big Scandinavian airline, he made captain for Indian carrier SpiceJet Ltd. and started flying the new Boeing jets.

    Then, six days before Christmas, Mr. Brendefur was told his job at the Gurgaon-based airline would end at the end of the year. He has applied to other airlines in the Middle East and Asia, hoping to stay in the region. But, he says, he might be running out of time. “Every day, I’m coming closer and closer to 65, when no one will hire me anymore,” he says. “To relocate from one corner of the world to another is not something you do for fun.”

    More than 800 foreign pilots like Mr. Brendefur heeded the call to come to India, according to the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, a Sydney-based market-research company. At their peak, they made up almost 20% of India’s pilot corps.

    “There were lots of discussions around the breakfast table with families: Should I look east and take a job there?” says Jim McAuslan, general secretary for the British Airline Pilots’ Association. “Even up to a few months ago, people were making that decision” as layoffs and salary cuts continued at many Western carriers.

    Recently, though, the Indian aviation industry has hit hard times. The industry is expected to lose more than $1.5 billion in the year ended March 31, analysts estimate. Pleas for a government bailout have gone unanswered, and carriers say they have been forced to cut staff and sell planes to stay afloat.

    In an election year, cutting Indians from the payroll has proved too politically sensitive. When Mumbai-based Jet Airways Ltd. said in October that it would lay off 1,900 flight attendants and pilots, the Indian government stepped in, pressuring the company to backpedal; it kept the workers. Firing foreign pilots, in contrast, doesn’t set political alarm bells ringing, airlines and industry observers say.

    “It makes overall economic sense to replace the expats,” says Jack Ekl, chief pilot and executive vice president of flight operations for SpiceJet.

    The airline still has 42 expatriate pilots, or roughly half of its captains, on the books, but expects to replace them by the government’s deadline, he says.

    While some carriers are having trouble finding enough Indian pilots with the required flight hours to promote to captain, almost all airlines say they will be expat-free by July 2010.

    Bangalore-based Kingfisher Airlines Ltd. said it is “in compliance with the program” to phase out foreign pilots. A company spokesman declined to comment on how many expat pilots Kingfisher has.

    Some observers say the protectionist measures India is taking in its aviation sector could prompt other countries to do the same to Indian workers.

    “It could be a very short-sighted approach that the Indian government is taking,” says Mr. McAuslan.

    —Patrick Barta contributed to this article.
    Write to Niraj Sheth at niraj.sheth@wsj.com

  4. The Scout Avatar
    The Scout

    Madd Maxx (may 8th @ 8.07P.M
    You have spoken a mouth full. These non-nationals don’t have Barbdos or bajans at heart, they just want to rape the country of its resources then return to their own country and laugh at us and there are bajans who are so gullible that they are falling for this crap

  5. JC Avatar
    JC

    This is what amuses me BU family.

    Yesterday I talked to a Black Guyanese and told him that since he was here for 14 years that he had a good chance of staying or at least becoming regularised.

    I was shame and felt insulted when he said:

    ‘I dont know if I want to stay here, I was just begging for a space.’

  6. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Scout & others

    Have you noticed the latest trend that seem to be developing?

    These guyanese people who came here and deliberately got children while they were illegal in the country are now saying that they should be given permanent residence because of that.

    What about our children we have here,they are asking?

    Well my answer to that is they need your attention and care back home so don’t forget to take them with you on your way out.

    These heart breaking stories will soon be flooding the airwaves and the newspapers,wait and see.

    To show you how bias the Nation is,they looked at the starbrok newspapers comments section on the Thompson new policy and chose the few mildest ones they could find so as not to give guyanese a bad name.

    Reading through all 8 pages of those comments will give anyone an idea of how like the blogger mad maxx said above – the guyanese and all the others hate and envy bajans but will still try to use the bajans and get as much as they can from this country.

    I wish all bajans included some like wickham and that mockman ole walrond will have a eureka moment.

    I was so surprised to hear ole walrond who prounces so much on his black roots and his black people and his constant condemnation of white bajans,yet have nothing but high praise for the indian guyanese who every one who talks to a black guyanese or who can read the newspaper knows that the indians in guyana there making the blacks shite and they hate black people real bad,even when black people reaching out and helping them.

    Some sex with these disease carrying women really does turn big men into clowns.

  7. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Let me give you some scenarios that are the gospel truth:

    I would not come on this blog and lie:

    Do bajans know that a leper (Guyanese was in Barbados and was only recently deported.

    Do bajans know that one of those African nurses had brought a child to Barbados claiming that she was her daughter when truth and in fact she was her slave and was seriously abusing her.

    Do you all know that nitrate has been found in our water because of all the squatting.

    Do you all know that REALLLLL Bajan men have been tricked by these women and they go down to immigration literally crying and making noise to get these women whom they went and married out of the island and brought them back.

    Do you all know that many of them marry the men and in 96 months they divorce them and bring in their children and husband.

    Is the BLP madddddddd? dont they care about our country?

    Mia you will be in opposition for a llllllllllllong long time!

  8. David Avatar
    David

    @JC

    Should we question the credibility of Roxanne Gibbs and Vic Fernandes who are of Guyanese extraction? It has become obvious to BU that the Nation especially has been less than honest about reporting the story of illegals in Barbados. Each time this story flares the predictable PR job is run showing how Barbadians and Guyanese are linked by an umbilical cord. But tell us is that the point? The point has been made that immigrants have worked side by side Barbadians for years to build Barbados.

    RED HERRING ARGUMENTS NOT ACCEPTED!

  9. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Anon@ 9:57 a.m.

    You are not lying.

    About 4 years ago when the BLP was in power there were accounts of at least 3 guyanese who came into Barbados with leprosy.

    I believe they were quarantined.

    Leprosy is contagious isn’t it?

    Also many,many guyanese came into barbados with a very virulent form of Tubercolusis.

    These are plain,unvarnished facts.

    This lil island is in big trouble with regards to diseases which barbados had gotten a handle on and in some cases eradicated.

    THE BLP HAS SINGLE HANDLEDLY DESTROYED BARBADOS WITH THEIR ENOURAGEMENT OF AN INFLUX OF IMMIGRANTS INTO BARBADOS.

    NEXT ELECTION PLEASE USE YOUR HEAD AND SPEAK WITH YOUR VOTE – VOTE OUT MIA,OWEN,DALE MARSHALL,GLYNE CLARKE AND ALL THE REST OF THEM.

    This country is now in serious peril because of these BLP politicians.

    And don’t let Thompson think it is easy for him too,harass him every day to make sure that he shows us regular pictures and statistics of the immigration deporting these thousands of illegals that we know are here.

  10. Negroman Avatar
    Negroman

    Anonymous
    It is scary what you are saying.I have heard of those stories but to be honest at the time I did not want to believe them.I know that there are cases of Tuberculosis in Guyana,but Leprosy wow that is another issue altogether.

    The drainage unit recently has been doing a fantastic job in cleaning the drains in Bridgetown.I often remarked that I never saw Bridgetown especially by the Fairchild Street Bus Stand and Market as dirty as it was previously.When a large Guyanese presence was there,that area was constantly very dirty and smelly.It reminded me of stinking Starbroek Market in Georgetown Guyana.Garbage strewn all over the place.The nasty Guyanese in addition to the equally stinking Indian & Pakistani business owners in Bridgetown had & have Bridgetown stink.That is the nature of the people of stink & dirty.No wonder that the Indian continent,Guyana,Trinidad and wherever Indian lived are filled with all types of diseases and plaques. That is why we must keep a lid of the numbers of rat catcher/mango seller Indians in Barbados.Those from the Continent & especially those from Guyana & Trinidad.

    David Thompson you have set motions in place please follow through on your promises or else.We will be monitoring the progress of this new immigration policy and I am sure that David & BU will constantly monitor the progress and report to us periodically.

  11. Witch Doctor Avatar
    Witch Doctor

    @ Anonymous // May 9, 2009 at 9:57 am

    About 4 years ago when the BLP was in power there were accounts of at least 3 guyanese who came into Barbados with leprosy.

    You serious?????
    ****************************

    A friend of mine told me the guyanese are making the lawyers busy trying to get themselves right but so many of them get turn away because of the complex new law that its virtually impossible to get legal.

    My Guyanese next door is already packing barrels to ship back to GT for he knows his time is near.

  12. JC Avatar
    JC

    BLAME JAGDEO!!!!!!!

    He needs to go, not only does he have the blacks suffering but his Indian family as well.

    I dont like this, I have read some of the blogs in Guyana, and some persons are readily admitting that Barbados is very small. However, the majority of them are cursing us soooooo stink.

    I think that if they took the time on the blogs to let jagdeo see what he has brought their country too that they would do the right thing!

    GET RID OF JAGDEO!

    He is not a true patriot of his country.

    He has caused his fellow country men to run from the land where there were borned, he has let his people to be the laughing stock and brunt of jokes, he has caused persons to despise them because they have come to take over a country which is not theirs. Shame Shame Shame ..This is not right.

    GET RID OF JAGDEO!

  13. Avatar
    Anonymous

    All bajans should be careful of getting into any scheme with guyanese who are not here legally or lending them money or anything that you would not like to part with.

    Many of them know their time here is short and they will be trying to scheme bajans in all sort of ways.

  14. JC Avatar
    JC

    @JC

    Should we question the credibility of Roxanne Gibbs and Vic Fernandes who are of Guyanese extraction?

    __________________________

    a resounding YESSSSSSSSS

  15. Yardbroom Avatar
    Yardbroom

    The situation of illegal immigration in Barbados has been exacerbated by a person whose name “I” will not mention, but his nefarious activities has driven a wedge, where a drop of oil would have been more useful.

    You cannot insult people and expect them to welcome you into their home. You cannot lodge as a stranger and expect the best bed. You cannot expect to be served first when dinner is scarce. You should, and can expect fair treatment but that comes through proper dialogue and respectful negotiations.

    Never have a people been so badly served, the authority he thought he had is no more; now that the “bluff” has been called, it is his people who will pay the price..it is better to be wise and stay silent than to promise much with a loud voice and lead your people to beggary.

  16. David Avatar
    David

    Read David Commisong’s predictable response to this issue. Have to say that after his position on the Ghanaian issue he has lost all credibility. Some issues one MUST be nationalistic first and anything else after.

  17. Jay Avatar
    Jay

    Here is Mr. Rickey Sigh’s “analysis” in the Trinidad News section.

    http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161475484
    “IT WOULD be surprising to learn that the two-day 12th meeting of Caricom Foreign Ministers concluded in Kingston yesterday without considering, as a matter of urgent importance, last Tuesday’s statement by Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson, threatening mass deportation of community nationals-unless they comply with a six-month amnesty to regularise their status by year end.

    Prime Minister Thompson’s statement in parliament, while not offering even an estimated number of non-nationals from the Caribbean living illegally in Barbados, gave the stern warning that if, by the end of the six-month amnesty period, starting this coming June 1, they failed to regularise their status, they would be “removed” that is, deported.

    Most of Caricom’s 15-member states are faced with the challenges of having nationals from Community jurisdictions, among them the undocumented, who work and enjoy social benefits.

    In the absence of precise statistics, speculations run the gamut on the size of the undocumented or illegals, with figures ranging from a low of approximately 8,000 to above 30,000 (over an accumulated period).

    The bulk of such immigrants are reported to comprise Vincentians, Guyanese, St Lucians and Grenadians-in that order-but also include Jamaicans and lesser still Kittians, Antiguans and Trinidadians.

    For its part, Trinidad and Tobago, from colonialism to constitutional republic, is reputed to still be the Caricom state that has the biggest challenge in coping with immigrants, in particular from Caricom, more than any other of the Community partners.

    Successive administrations in Port of Spain have, nevertheless, managed to avoid the so-called “red flag” scenario that has now surfaced in Barbados.

    Thompson’s governing Democratic Labour Party, which replaced the third-term Barbados Labour Party administration of former Prime Minister Owen Arthur in January 2008, has been consistent with its passion to check what it presents as “the flow of Caricom immigrants” that places a “burden” on the economy, and which it was no longer prepared to tolerate.

    Last week’s latest development of a six-month grace period before the threatened mass deportation programme is enforced, has come at a time when the Caribbean Community continues to grapple, uneasily, with sensitive issues like common policies on managed migration and freedom of movement.

    Sharp criticisms of the Thompson government’s policy have already come from Opposition Leader of the Barbados Labour Party and former Attorney General, Mia Mottley.

    She has deemed it to be “discriminatory”-since only nationals of Caricom states have been targeted, without any reference to illegal immigrants from non-Caribbean countries, such as North America and Europe.

    Mottley, who was Deputy Prime Minister in the BLP administration, said the move could result in serious consequences for Barbados which has been benefitting the most from intra-regional trade and investments among Caricom states.

    Meanwhile, the immigrants then not blamed for “overcrowding” in the illicit sex trade; for “squatting and drug-peddling”, are also being contemptuously dismissed for reducing Barbados to “a kind of warehouse in which is stored the social and other problems of the Caribbean,”according to Attorney General Freundel Stuart.

    These “squatters” and “drug-peddlers”, according to Prime Minister Thompson himself, are people from countries “used to underclasses” and accustomed to “substandard conditions”.

    Such utterances have been reported, unchallenged, in the local media. The small but vocal segment of anti-immigrants Bajans are delighted by such outbursts but it is not the sentiment of the majority of Barbadians, and there continues to be conflicting views on what’s evolving as a problem that Caricom governments cannot afford to ignore.

    Declaring that “the problem of illegal immigration can no longer be ignored”, in view of the economic burden the government has to bear, Prime Minister Thompson made it clear in parliament last Tuesday: “…Therefore, with effect from June 1, 2009 all undocumented Caricom nationals who entered Barbados prior to December 31, 2005 and remained undocumented for a period of eight years or more, are required to come forward and have their status regularised…

    “After the qualifying period has expired,” stressed Thompson, “those Caricom nationals without lawful permission to remain in the island will be removed…””

  18. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Ricky singh is such a liar when he says that the majority of bajans are not happy with prime minister Thomson’s decision.

    Imagine he is writing this for another caribbean newspaper and giving this misleading information so that thomson will look as though he is spiteful and not carrying out the wishes of the majority of bajan people.

    I hope thompson watching this carefully,but you see Singh will write that now because it is the same DLP that had to save him after Tom Adams kicked him out.

    It is the DLP who give he and his family the papers so that he and his children could fly around with bajan passports.

    If he likes the guyanese so much why doesn’t he go back and help them build guyana and better the conditions there?

  19. Sir Bentwood Dick Avatar
    Sir Bentwood Dick

    So, we getting rid of de Guyanese.

    Last two weeks I see in de papers, one work permit notice for a ‘business manager’ and another work permit notice for a ‘sales manager’.

    You tell me that with alla de people coming out of Cave Hill, and all of the young managers and supervisors in large companies throughout Barbados, that we cannot find a Business Manager and a Sales Manager?

    Will the work permits be granted?

    The regularisation of immigration is a right thing to do, but acceptable granting of work permits is also required.

    Will large companies have the clout to flout work permit rules ‘legally’?

    Is the crackown on ‘lil people only?

    The suggestion on this blog a few weeks ago, to have a listing EVERY month in the national newspapers, of the work permits issued that month, is a good one.

    Meanwhile, with people advertising for business and sales managers, what are we educating our people at Cave Hill to be, labourers with degrees?

    I guess if you are willing to give work permits, in some cases to people with no greater qualifications than locals and in some cases to people less qualified than some locals, therefore leaving out the locals, then maybe getting rid of the Guyanese is a good idea, so that our people with University degrees can work on the construction sites, now to be vacated by Guyanese.

    Colonisation is de name of de game.

    Wunna trying to bring back massa day?

  20. Sir Bentwood Dick Avatar
    Sir Bentwood Dick

    Above, ‘meanwhile, with people advertising for business and sales managers, what are we educating our people at Cave Hill to be, labourers with degrees?’

    re-write as with people seeking work permits for business and sales managers,

    Dog bite it, this got me vex.

  21. Sir Bentwood Dick Avatar
    Sir Bentwood Dick

    By the way, it should also be a stipulation, that any work permit application is sought, the salary advertised for the local position must be at least equal to that salary offered to any subsequent hiring with a work permit.

    So, a further stipulation should be, that a work permit will not be granted, if the salary stated and proved, is shown to be greater than the salary that was to be offered if a local had filled the post.

    This will ensure that locals are paid appropriately for the post and that locals are willing to take an appropriately paid position, rather than the employer deliberately turning locals off, then employing a person with a work permit at a greater salary.

  22. Sir Bentwood Dick Avatar
    Sir Bentwood Dick

    Mr.Editor,

    In the absence of the Gov’t listing those work permits issued, maybe a title in the blog could be Work Permits Issued, with contributors, anyone, entering places and positions where they know a work permit has been issued?

    This would ensure a publicly available database, albeit by bajans at large, who see positions being filled, especially those where bajans can do the work.

  23. Bush Tea Avatar
    Bush Tea

    @ David

    …I beg to second that proposal from Sir Dickie…

  24. JC Avatar
    JC

    Very good proposition! Excellent!

  25. J Avatar
    J

    Anonymous wrote on May 9th at 9:57

    “Do bajans know that a leper (Guyanese was in Barbados and was only recently deported”

    So what? I am not yet a retiree, and there were Bajan lepers at the Lazaretto in my lifetime. Do you think that that big able Lazaretto property was always an Archives and a University. No. It was full, full of Bajan lepers.

    Leprosy is not easily transmitted.

    We should be worried about TB which is easily and casually transmitted.

    We should be worried about HIV, for which there is no cure.

    Do we check white tourists for TB or HIV?

    Or it it that their money sweeten we?

  26. J Avatar
    J

    Knight of the long Knives wrote “I make more money than most of the population and can’t see any way to buy an average house without drowning in debt of 25 years”

    Dear Knight of the Long Knives:

    You do not have to “drown in debt” for 25 years, but you will have to DISCIPLINE yourself for 25 years. You may have to give up, smoking, drinking, nights out with the boys (or girls), holidays overseas, a car (the Transport Board is still in service you) know) and you will be able to pay your mortgate. Beside you know very well that it is not Guyanes immigrants that have driven the cost of houses up. It is the moneyed folk on the west coast you flip this real estate to maximise profits, those real estate agents who encourage this flipping, and all government who collect taxes on the transactions.

    Don’t blame poo Guyanese immigrants for driving the up the price of houses in Barbados.

  27. J Avatar
    J

    I believe that the present government’s immigration plans are driven by racism.

    I believe that immigration rules should not discriminate against those who were born in the CARICOM region.

    It is a strange thing when the government acting in our name plans to treat CARICOM nationals differently (and more harshly) that those illegal immigrants born in the U.K. Canada or the U.S.

    I do not like what the Prime Minister has said.

    I doubt very much that deporting Guyanese will drive down the cost of living, or the cost of housing.

    And what are the government’s plans for the Barbadian born children of illegal CARICOM immigrants?

    Does the government plan to forcibly separate parents from their children? And does this remind anyone of slavery?

    What was the immigration status of the Prime Minister when he was born in the United Kingdom 40+ years ago?

    I smell the nasty hand of that Trinidadian woman who won’t keep off the call-in shows (and most of my cousins are Trinidadian) in this matter.

    Does she not claim to be a dear friend of our Minister of Immigration?

    Is she?

    And is that foreigner influencing our immigration policy?

  28. J Avatar
    J

    The DLP has received a lott, lotta votes from me.

    But not another one.

  29. BAJAN BORN Avatar
    BAJAN BORN

    “J”, re your good repsonse to the “leper thing”. You got to realise anybody can write in and say all sorts of bad things about Guyanese (and non-natinals in general). Of course, no proof is given This is the same thing the right wing parties and neo-fascist outfits in UK and Europe were (and continue to do) against peple of colour including black Barbadian immigrants and even swarthy and Med and south eastern European types.
    This brings me to Albert Brandford’s useful point in his feature in today’s Sunday Sun comparing the recent stand on undocumented here as a diversionary tactic to deflect from ongoing current economic downturn. In effect, the undocumented are being made scapegoats, says Branford..
    Albert needs to develop this analysis about this type of opportunism. World wide, it has its origins in a party’s roots and a big question is if the party has a principled ideological grounded in working peoples’ interests. Alternatively, because of a shallow populism which may pander to some peoples’ unsubstantiated fears, it may feel confient in taking and implementing positions, such as anti-foreigner measures, which are effectively against said interests.Both main Barbadian parties are rooted in the working class so how could we have this present situation ?
    .As for Mr. Daniels above, if McDougall wasn’t “mandated” to report on the real minorities in Guyana why is her so called report so labelled ?
    Please address the roots of main party formation in Guyana and their continued adherence to respective ideologies: one rooted in defence of petty bourgoeis racist interests which has to continue to pander to lingering fears about “discrimination” in order avoid the dustbin of history ; the other from the beginning in a multi- racial/religious working class approach taking in certain historical realities and which will be in power for a very long time…….

  30. David Avatar
    David

    Faria you are very selective in picking the articles to support why Barbados should continue with a free for all immigration policy. Why not pick the article which quoted Byron Blake former Deputy at the CARICOM Secretariat? Did he not say that not only Barbados but all the countries in the Caribbean need to regulate its immigration flows. What about the article by New York Correspondent Tony Best who wrote that Barbadians in the Diaspora are on borad with the government’s policy.

    So Faria hasn’t PM Thompson given undocumented workers in Barbados an opportunity to get legal? Would you prefer the bedlam continues of not knowing who what where? The ignorance of some Barbadians who profess to be so intelligent making this an issue about Barbadians being xenophobic when many islands in CARICOM are doing the same thing.

  31. Trinidad. Adventist. Gay?! Avatar
    Trinidad. Adventist. Gay?!

    No wonder that the Indian continent,Guyana,Trinidad and wherever Indian lived are filled with all types of diseases and plaques. That is why we must keep a lid of the numbers of rat catcher/mango seller Indians in Barbados.Those from the Continent & especially those from Guyana & Trinidad.
    ——————————-

    This is wild!
    Lawd have mercy!
    You must feel cooped up or something…

    I mean: aren’t you even a little ashamed?

  32. JC Avatar
    JC

    We should be worried about TB which is easily and casually transmitted.

    We should be worried about HIV, for which there is no cure.

    Do we check white tourists for TB or HIV?

    Or it it that their money sweeten we?
    ___________________________

    J you know I respect you but sweet girl you dont know the half of it! It seems that although persons have eyes they refuse to see.

    How long must this madness go on…..

    I thought as anyright thinking bajan that you would want to know who is in your country and WHY they have overstayed.

    Be they Caricom nationals or People from the European countries or Asian.

    I dont give a hoot where you come from you must do it legally!

    Sorry j but I aint with you atall on this one!

    Peace!

  33. J Avatar
    J

    David you wrote “that Barbadians in the Diaspora are on board with the government’s policy.”

    We do not care what Barbadians in the diaspora think.

    They do not live here.

    They do not work here.

    They do not pay taxes here (ok a pittance in land tax).

    They do not vote here.

    And yes some of the diaspora are my siblings, neices and nephews (pepole whose diapers I’ve changed) and will change again when necessary, and other people who I love very much.

    I would give them a kidney (but not an overseas vote) tomorrow.

    The Prime Minister of Barbados MUST not set policy based on what the diaspora wants.

    Did any of them vote for him?

    Can he collect a cent of taxes from any of them tomorrow?

    If the Canada, the United Kingdom or the United States put undocumented CARICOM nationals in their countries on immigration notice we in Barbados would be screaming racism and bloody murder.

    But when our Prime Minister does it, it is ok ?

  34. J Avatar
    J

    Dear JC:

    You wrote “anyright thinking bajan that you would want to know who is in your country and WHY they have overstayed.”

    But WE DO KNOW who is in our country.

    I don’t understand where this term undocumented immigrants comes from.

    Barbados has virtually no “undocumented” immigrants.

    People who enter Barbados enter through one or the other of our 2 main ports, precisely because undocumented entry by sea would be difficult and expensive, and undocumented entry by air is virtually impossible.

    Everybody who enters through the Bridgetown Port, the airport, and presumably Port St. Charles is DOCUMENTED by an immigration officer.

    I’ve left and entered Barbados dozens of times and each time an Immigration officer documents my entry an my navel string (unlike the Prime Minister’s) bury here.

    I think that most of us seem to have forgotten our geography. Our nearest neighbor is 90 miles over the sea.

    Precisely because of this Barbados’ borders are easier to police that the thousands of miles long land borders that conect the United States, Mexico and Canada.

    As to why people overstayed?

    JC there are 2 reasons. People overstay because the find work that pays better thatn work at m=home.

    Some overstay because they fall in love, or at least in temporary lust.

    We do not need to threaten people with deportation to answer your questions.

    We already know the answers.

    But maybe they are the answers you and people like you do not want to hear.

  35. Negroman Avatar
    Negroman

    JC
    Why answered the nit picker J.She nit picks at trivia as I always indicated.

    J the Democratic Labour Party DOES NOT need your vote to be the government of Barbados.The other thousands of Barbadians are satisfied & happy with this government position on this illegal immigration issue

    I want to see mass deportation of non-nationals they are taking up space including musty,unkempt Norman Faria.

    J rest yourself You are old and you are losing it.You are defending a position that is no defendable.

  36. BAJAN BORN Avatar
    BAJAN BORN

    “David”, whoever you are, where you get this thing of associating the BAJAN BORN blogger with the person you name ? Where you get that from ? If someone signs himself BAJAN BORN , under the system of anonymity shown to other bloggers, why are you trying to give her/him a real name ? This just exposes hypocrisy when it comes to free speech.
    More importantly, it shows why the BU gets only a handful of people (some under multiple names) writing in and cases like Negroman jerking off with their racism and hatred against Guyanese, both black and East Indian.
    Indeed, weren’t it for Guyanese-bashing where would this little gossip corner be ? You got to permit racism like describing peoples as disease ridden and thieves and slander people’s reputation to try and keep people reading . But I guess people got no shame or self espect.And you know the people behind this little divisive ( and they got to be some money making somewhere) operation would long be paying hefty fines and be pulled off line in countries like Canada.
    Get real, or better yet go and try and and meet an Indian Guyanese single woman (if you are single and male) court she and get married. Both of you, spread the genes !
    Long live the unity and friendship of Bajans and Guyanese !
    Long live the progress and democracy in Guyana !

  37. David Avatar
    David

    BU has repeatedly written that we don’t associate with some comments posted on BU which are extreme but we respect free speech. We wonder why you don’t address directly issues which BU blogs. Why would the Consul of Guyana want to hide behind the mask of anonymity?

    You should not be too concerned about BU’s readership. You should be more concern about respecting and promoting the sovereign rights of Barbados.

  38. mash up & buy back Avatar
    mash up & buy back

    Every sentence in that last post by bajan born gives him away as the Norman Faria – the bane of bajan society.

    If faria is such a fearless freedom fighter on behalf of the guyanese people then he should speak without fear of using his name.

    However by using a puesdo name he can say nasty things about bajan citizens and the freedom of expression in this country that he knows will be crossing the line as an ‘honorary consul’.

    So BU is exposing him every time when he threatens lawsuits and says nasty things about the bloggers and he does not like it.

  39. mash up & buy back Avatar
    mash up & buy back

    Freddie Kissoon’s article in the kaeitur newspaper makes for interesting reading.

    He says that many prominent guyanese citizens in business,religion media,politics like the WPA (the party of walter rodney) are all disgusted and shocked by what is happening under this basdeo jagdeo PPP regime.

    A mr Roopnarine – a well known guyanese describe forbes burnham as a boy scout as compared to that of basdeo jagdeo’s corruption.

    He and members of his cabinet are seen out late at nights with girls as young as 15 and partying with known drug pushers.

    Worst of all all the top state jobs are reserved for the family members and close friends of the jagdeo administration.

    Now you understand why faria would not like ruel daniels and others to speak about that,and why he and ricky singh are so scared to go back to their guyanese homeland.

    Life is nice here in goog ole Bim.

    Without a doubt if you go on word on the street they are the 2 most hated guyanese living in Barbados.

    Walk softly my friends,and remember you are guests in this country.

  40. JC Avatar
    JC

    @ J

    I don’t understand where this term undocumented immigrants comes from.

    Barbados has virtually no “undocumented” immigrants.

    __________________________

    Really! what about those persons who came in true the CORRECT systems but refuse to do the honorable thing and that is to GO BACK HOMEEEEE or request for a work permit or for a longer period of stay! That would be the LEGAL THING to do.
    ___________________________

    I’ve left and entered Barbados dozens of times and each time an Immigration officer documents my entry an my navel string (unlike the Prime Minister’s) bury here.

    _________________________

    But he has bajan parents! And his parents made sure that they went throught the corect legal channels to get his citizenship LEGAL! Who Ali Singh and Basit Ali knows or belongs too!

    __________________________

    JC there are 2 reasons. People overstay because the find work that pays better thatn work at m=home.
    _________________________
    What about my friend ‘Sam’ who has a family to support and these people come and take away their jobs LEGALLY. Because a million of them live in the same house and can split the bills but what about Sam who lives in the same house same family and one bajan dollar is still one bajan dollar what shite you talking about?
    _________________________
    Some overstay because they fall in love, or at least in temporary lust.
    _________________________

    J I work in an institution that proves that most of these marraiges are a SHAM please spear me!
    ___________________________

    We do not need to threaten people with deportation to answer your questions.
    We already know the answers.
    But maybe they are the answers you and people like you do not want to hear.
    __________________________

    J you believe that I came and I said that I respected you and you make me out to be an IDIOT ……… the man giving the Guyanese and all other non nationals AMNESTY (which I dont think they deserve).

    And you say that I dont want too hear when MOST bajans are supporting the PM you dont have to vote for him. vote for Mia so that that one day she can knock on your house and tell you that the Guyanese need your land then I would hear a different story ( I know that you will come with the talk bout you navel string bury right here Mia and them aint want to hear that lol

    Look J sweet girl have a GREAT DAY!

  41. Dark Knight Avatar
    Dark Knight

    Question Time

    I drew attention to the Immigration Act of Barbados to show you that under the Act, three people have power:

    The Minister – in this case the PM; The Chief Immigration Officer (CIO) and Immigration Officers.

    No court; no judge; no magistrate no one else have power to over-turn their decision as it relates to illegal immigrants.

    With the number of DLP Immigration Officers in the system – how then did Barbados get 30,000 illegal immigrants – as alleged by the DLP when in Opposition?

    Since there is a point and certain conditions to be met before a persons becomes an illegal immigrant – was there organise crime; a crime syndicate, and or corruption in the Immigration Department?

    Can the proposed immigration clean-up take place with existing Immigration Officers doing that job?

    Illegal Immigrant bounty

    Consistent with the DLP’s new employmement creation strategy of offering $0.50 per pound to pick African Snails – will the PM be putting $1.5 million in his budget (30,000 illegal immigrants x $50.00 = $1.4 million) and offering a bounty for each illegal immigrant turned over to the Immigration department – so that the can be banished from Barbados by New year 2110?

  42. anon Avatar
    anon

    bc pires funny today, the cuss he receive make him settle down

  43. Comment Avatar
    Comment

    J, do not mislead the public. The amnesty debate DIED in the Senate: Americans of all political persuasions were and are against. Republicans were & are against McCain for his and Pres. Bush’s comprehensive immigration bill; don’t even want to hear the details of the bill and are still talking about building a wall along the Mexican border.

  44. J Avatar
    J

    JC wrote “vote for Mia so that that one day she can knock on your house”

    Neither Mia (nor David) can come to my house without permission.

    I’ve never invited either of them to my home (and I’ve NEVER gone to theirs) and I don’t plan to invite either of them.

    So rest easy JC.

  45. Avatar
    Anonymous

    David

    Could you please publish Freddie Kisson’s article in the Kaeiteur newspaper as:A NEW ARTICLE/POST by the BU household?

    It is stinging like stinging bees!

  46. Ruel Daniels Avatar
    Ruel Daniels

    Here is a piece you guys might like.

    *************************************
    Why doesn’t Rickey Singh come home to Guyana?

    May 12, 2009 | By knews | Filed Under Features /

    Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

    During the seventies, when I was a UG student, I pointed out a criticism that was made against Professor Clive Thomas. I was young and radical and wanted to fight all the time. So I told Dr. Thomas he must reply. With his characteristic smile, he said that it is not everything you reply to; some things you just don’t dignify. I always remember those words of Clive Thomas.

    I will not dignify the nonsense Vishnu Bisram writes about me. Every Guyanese who follows political debate in this country and every reader of the newspapers’ letter section will know by now that over the past two years, Mr. Bisram has failed to name the American high school he works at.
    Quite shockingly, he got his side-kick, a person by the name of Anand Boodram, to write a letter in this newspaper stating that Mr. Bisram makes up for the time when he is in another countries doing polls by teaching his students in the summer recess. How foolish! I have been a teacher my whole life and teachers in schools and universities have to function from September to June in a calendar year.
    All over the world, including Canada and Guyana where I have experience, and in the US where Mr. Bisram lives, that is how the school curriculum is set.

    Over the past five years, he has failed to cite the address, telephone numbers and names of the leadership of an organization that employs him to do polls, called NACTA. There is no such organization. Fortunately, for Guyanese readers, David de Caires, before he died, discontinued publishing the fictional polls of Mr. Bisram and told him that he is free to use the letter pages of the Stabroek.
    That is where Bisram’s current poll data can be found.

    I ignore the mediocre ramblings of the Honorary Consul of Guyana in Barbados, Norman Faria. No one should pay attention to his foolish propaganda. Propaganda can be astute and interesting but in Faria’s case, it is extremely childish. Trust the PPP Government to employ incompetent people.

    Faria’s latest outpouring against me relates to my criticism of Cuba. There is no need to mention his glowing tribute about democracy in Cuba. Faria can eulogize imaginary freedoms and fictional democracy in Cuba because he lives in one of Planet Earth’s enduring democracies – Barbados.

    Faria isn’t going anywhere, not even in Guyana, a country that is 83, 000 square miles, that has vastly wealthier people than Barbados yet thousands of Guyanese are flocking that island of 166 square miles in search of a better life.
    Faria’s friends have been in power in Guyana for over sixteen years yet Faria isn’t interested in living in Guyana.

    Living in Barbados, too, and quite happily so, is pro-PPP propagandist, Rickey Singh. In this life, one cannot demand respect. I will not request others to respect me and I will decide to whom I will show moral admiration. I have no recognition for Rickey Singh as a media functionary. I disagreed when UWI bestowed an honorary doctorate on him.

    I concede that Singh does not need my blessing but at least I have the right to inform my readers how I feel about him. He has been running a Sunday Chronicle article since the PPP returned to power. His topics consist of consistent criticism of some of the some democratic societies in the world – the Caricom islands. But you do not read anything pointed from this about elected dictatorship, corruptibility and governmental immorality in Guyana.

    This man is extremely overbearing in his journalistic double standards.
    His latest mischief centres on the Barbadian Prime Minister. Mr. Thompson has indicated that undocumented immigrants will have to report for bureaucratic processing or else face deportation. This is normal in any country. Obscure, poor, unrecognized Guyana deports people if they overstay their visit or enter illegally. Imagine that!

    In his last Sunday Chronicle column, Singh lashed out at Mr. Thompson and did a journalistically dishonest thing. He wrote that Trinidad has more illegal migrants than Barbados yet is not behaving the way Barbados is doing.
    How can one make such a foolish comparison? Trinidad has a stronger population, more land space and a vastly better economic prospect for migrants than Barbados. It can accommodate the hundreds of illegal Guyanese that presently live in Barbados. The reality is that Barbados cannot accommodate the thousands of Guyanese that want to settle there.
    Singh should encourage them to stay in Guyana and help vote the PPP out of power. Singh too should come back home. He has overstayed his welcome in Barbados

  47. David Avatar
    David

    Will post it the rotation tonight.

  48. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thanks david

  49. Negroman Avatar
    Negroman

    Norman Faria contributed to the harsh,stringent measures imposed by David Thompson on non-nationals Caribbean people in Barbados.

    Can anyone remembers when David Thompson in one of his television interviews criticised Norman Faria & Ricky Singh for their constant interference into the internal affairs of Barbados.He made the point that those persons were making things worst for their fellow nationals by the rhetoric that was coming from them, highly critical of Barbadians & Barbados.I am sure that our Prime Minister was totally annoyed with Norman Faria when he wanted VOB to ban callers discussing the illegal immigration issue.Also when he also encouraged the Nation Newspaper to limit its publication of anything regarding the illegal immigration issue.I also believe that our Prime Minister did not take to kindly with the call from Norman Faria for the Commissioner of Police to charge callers and also for the blogs particularly this one to be shut down.

    I totally agreed with Freddie Kisson call for Ricky Singh & Norman Faria to back their bags and go back home to Guyana.Both of them are taking up space

    Guyanese in Barbados should be hostile and angry with Norman Faria & Ricky Singh.It is because of the interference by both of them that caused the Prime Minister to imposed those harsh matters.

    Guyanese blame Norman Faria & Ricky Singh for the predicament that many of you all are now encountering in Barbados.Maybe if Norman Faria & Ricky Singh did not meddled in our domestic affairs maybe the stipulations for immigrant status might not be as stringent as there are now presently..

  50. y. paris Avatar
    y. paris

    I an a west indian living in the United States. I have been following the issue of free movement of people in caricom and the time has come for regional governments to make a decision regarding illegal immigration. the rest of the caricom islands, minus guyana should follow suit and deport all illegals from their shores. the good people of barbados and their prime minister should declare ricky singh persona non grata permanently, once and for all. the people of barbados have a right to protect their sovreignty just as every other country in the world. mr david thompson is right to kick all illegal immigrants out of barbados. barbados cannot be the dumping ground for guyanese. barbados is for barbadians now and forever!

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