The opposition Peoples Democratic Movement ( PDM) staged a process in front of the Premier’s Office in Providenciales on Wednesday in protest against the Asylum Bill, which is making its way through parliament and could pass this Friday.
The picketing politicians charged that the bill will not only enlarge voting franchise, but also open the floodgates for characters of varying background gain citizenships in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The PDM wants government to put the bill before the people of the country for them to have an input before passing it into law.
Sean Astwood, former Deputy Premier and Minister of Immigration stated:“First of all, section 14 of the bill speaks about the eligibility and how you apply for asylum. And it says that any person that is in legal custody is eligible to apply for asylum.
“What we understand legal custody to mean is that anybody that the immigration picks up on the side of the road, anybody that's on a boat in the middle of the night, once they reach the shore here and they're in immigration or the police hands, can apply for asylum. Imagine what that would do to this country. The pure backlog.
“And then you further go into the bill and realize that once a person applies, they cannot be deported out of the country until the whole process is finished. So, they apply, the minister has to respond, or the committee responds, the minister responds, the governor responds. It comes back, they can appeal, and it goes through that process again.
“All that time the person has to be in here. And then the government also has to fit the bill. So the government has to provide gainful employment for them, provide shelter for them, as we see in the scenario with the Sri Lankans back in the day.”
Deputy Leader of the PDM, Robert Been Jr., accused the United Kingdom and the United Nations of forcing the Turks and Caicos Islands to open its borders to unwanted individuals.
“We are so close to Haiti and these other neighboring countries that these illegal ships have been making landfall. And what happens is, as the former Deputy Premier would have said, once these folks have made landfall and are in legal possession of the authority, then they have a right to apply.
“What that does, it puts a huge strain on the government financial resources. Could you imagine the backlog of cases that we will have? In fact, we currently don't have the original number of persons that are here in this country illegally right now. So, as it stands, once this bill passes, you leave it up to a minister to decide. And what happens when you leave it up to a minister, one man? It breeds roots for corruption.
“We are already outnumbered in this country. We have more important issues to fix. If we have the funds in our budget to support and finance this bill, as the former Deputy would have said, we can use that money for educating our people. We can use that money for providing housing. We can use that money for building better health care facilities and protecting our borders.
“How could you pass a bill when the borders of Turks and Caicos is not protected? Please, make sense of this.”
Dwayne Taylor, former speaker of the House accused the government of trying to quickly sneak a bill through the back door of Parliament because they have the numbers. He also accused Governor Her Excellency Dileeni Daniel Selvaratnam of being is culpable, pointing out that the attempt to pass the bill was a result of trade-off between the UK and the Washington Misick administration.
“We know where the British government stands. And the PNP government is making sure that they live up to the trade-off that they made with the British government,” Taylor said.
He continued: “How can you do that? How can you? Any sensible person in this 21st century, when you look at Turks and Caicos and where we are, we are outnumbered. We own nothing. Can you imagine if we should consent to this bill, what will happen to our children and generations unborn? Let me show you how serious this is.
“Not only that, we have situations, because look at it. You're talking about refugees. And you look at the UN Convention with regards to refugees in 1951 order. That is one aspect of it. We have so many undocumented people in this country. We have so many illegals in this country. Not only that, one aspect of the bill is that anyone under the age of 18 can apply. So, if you have unaccompanied minors coming into TCI and they're with someone, they can apply.”
“So, we know where the British government stands,” said Dwayne Taylor, former speaker of the House.
“They didn't even give their constituents the opportunity to say this is not good for us. And then they brought it straight to parliament where they know they have the votes,” said Sean Astwood, former deputy leader of the PDM. “It's going to destroy us. It's going to destroy our children. And I'm not even talking about our resources that will be at an all-time bankrupt if should we allow this to happen.”
He added; “I can suggest one immediate change to the bill. It's that no one should be able to apply for asylum in this country while in the country. That will fundamentally deter anyone from using the asylum mechanism as a means of getting here. That will cure the situation with people coming on boats, on illegal sloops. It will cure the situation that.”
For his part, Ralph Higgs, At-Large Candidate and former minister of tourism is pleading to the governor not to allow the bill to go into force until there is proper public consultation.
“We're going to ask the Governor not to ascend to this bill because one of the fundamental principles of our Constitution is being breached here. The Constitution talks about public consultation when extensive amendments are being made to a bill or a new bill is being introduced,” he said.
Higgs added; “There was no public consultation as it relates to this bill. So, for the Governor to ascend to this bill, knowing the opposition's position on it, knowing that no public consultation took place, will render her implicit and render her in breach of good governance, render her in breach of a constitutional requirement.
“So, we are going on record today as asking the Governor not to ascend to this bill until the public is satisfied that it has been properly consulted on this bill. Another thing, it can be suggested or misconstrued that this bill would only address new people coming into the country.
“Once this bill is passed, every person that is here today that is illegal will be subject to this bill. And could you imagine if the tens of thousands of persons who currently reside in this country legally have access to this bill and can file for an asylum in Turks and Caicos under this bill, the status quo as it currently exists will just be reinforced or legitimized.”
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