Date: Fri 22-Sep-2000

UBP blasted for `inaction' over long-term residents

By Matthew Taylor

Panellists and audience members last night blasted the former UBP government

for failing to tackle the long-term residency issue.

In explaining the Green Paper on the issue to a packed audience at the St.

James Church Hall, Somerset, Home Affairs Minister Paula Cox explained that

under international law aliens were normally denied political rights.

But she said people tacitly agreed long-term residents should be granted some

concessions.

Lawyer and PLP supporter Ian Kawaley said the reason emotion had entered into

the debate was because immigrants had been brought not just to work but to

act as a political buffer.

He said: ``The concern about long-term residents is not about treating them

fairly, it is a concern about treating Bermudians fairly.

``Many people who have come to Bermuda have brought an attitude they would

not bring to an independent country.

``This Government has no mandate to consider status, it's unfortunate that

the UBP has been advocating status, they had the opportunity to give status if

they wanted, to advance status now is quite absurd.''

National Liberal Party Chairman Graeme Outerbridge also blasted the UBP for

inaction but he appealed to Bermudians to remember the course the country

took would have repercussions abroad.

He said: ``The signals we send out is potentially how Bermudians will be

treated in other places.

``How many Bermudians have left to make a way of life in other countries?

He went on: ``What is our citizenship -- we don't have it right now?''

He said the humanitarian point of view should be remembered when looking at

the issue.

Mr. Outerbridge said his party were advocating a seven-year requirement for a

spouse, while non-Bermudians should be allowed to apply for residency after

seven years but numbers granted should be based on the number of Bermudians

leaving the Island.

Lawyer Elizabeth Christopher said options put forward by the Green Paper

fitted in with the Bermuda Constitution which was based on the European Human

Rights Convention. Trevor Fife, of the West Indian community, said: ``In my

humble opinion this Government doesn't owe anybody anything.''

He said the Government was addressing the issue in a commendable manner and he

urged it to listen to the plight of long-term residents here before the 1989

moratorium on status.

Panellist and PLP supporter Joella Dawn Simmons said some Bermudians had been

forced to leave because they could not find the work they wanted.

She said: ``We can give Permanent Resident's Certificates but not right now.''

She called for a register of all the Bermudians displaced from jobs and she said letting long-term residents buy high end housing could encourage a further hike in house prices as people sought to get more for their homes than they were worth.

One audience member, who identified herself as a teacher, said it was unfair

to attack expats for working in Bermuda.

She said: ``We can't function without them -- we need to stop depending on them.''

She said it was up to Bermuda to educate its children to a standard where

they would be automatically first choice for jobs.

Another teacher -- CedarBridge's Denise Woodhouse -- said she was upset expats were all getting labelled the same way. She said: ``Two wrongs don't make a right. I can't be associated with what happened in this country 50 or a 100

years ago.''