Published 6 December 2022
Basseterre
Buckie Got It, St Kitts Nevis News Source
News Credit:sknnewssource.com
Isles debunks CCM falsehoods
NEVIS REFORMATION PARTY (NRP) DOESN’T SEE MIGRANTS IN ANY UNFLATTERING LIGHT assured Rohan Isles at a campaign rally Sunday night.
Isle gave the assurance to Caribbean and other residents on the island while debunking false and misleading statements peddled by the ruling Concerned Citizens Movement (CCM) headed by incumbent Premier Mark Brantley.
“They are running around telling the non-nationals a lot of things, but once you are abiding by the laws of St Christopher and Nevis, and contributing to our social security net, you have absolutely nothing to worry about,” Isles emphasised.
In his address, the NRP candidate for next Monday’s polls told the mixed crowd, “So, this nonsense about people deporting you. [It] don’t wuk (work) suh (so). We have immigration laws. We just can’t get up and send you out, you got to break the laws,” he explained.
The NRP is challenging the two-term CCM at next week’s polls and corrected rumors that as a policy, the party of leader Dr. Janice Daniel-Hodge has concocted nefarious plans to deport non-nationals primarily the Spanish, Haitians, Guyanese, and Jamaicans whom the party views unfavorably.
Isles reminded his listeners that under past NRP administrations, non-nationals played vital roles, and a number of initiatives were put in place to accommodate them. In the education sector, they were allowed to attend schools free of cost, like nationals.
He reflected on the Joseph Parry-led administration which slashed work permit costs, while the matter of residency was offered to a number of non-nationals with the only caveat being gainful employment.
Like other countries around the world, Isles reiterated that if residents break the law, then deportation must not be ruled out following the process prescribed in the statutes.
“And like anywhere in the world, if we were to go to Jamaica and break the laws, deported. If we go to Guyana and break the law, deported. If we go to America and break the law, deported. Well, what’s wrong with us are we special suh that we are not able to protect our own people? He queried rhetorically.
“Tell them that we say if you want to live here, play by our rules, and you will be clear,” Isles emphasized.
On the issue of work permit cost, he refreshed the audience’s memory that the CCM reintroduced higher costs for the document.
“It was the NRP who reduced the work permits for the non-nationals. It was the CCM who took it back up, called amnesty and brought it back down to where we had it, and say here is a gift for you. It was the NRP who allowed our Caribbean brothers and sisters to enjoy the same level of service at our health centers and hospitals, you don’t pay anything different from us,” Isles wrapping himself in the garb of a historian, told his attentive listeners.
He recalled a conversation with a Trinidad and Tobago national surprised that Nevis doesn’t charge foreigners extra for healthcare, unlike his own country.
“It was the NRP who allowed our Caribbean brothers and sisters an opportunity to go to public schools without having to pay. It was the NRP that granted the opportunity for non-nationals to own homes. So many of you are crying out that for 14, 20, 20 plus years you have been here and every time you ask this government, you get the (royal) round around. (Well) we are coming! [There will be] deliverance from those kinds of things,” said Isles now in the mode of a social prophet.
“NRP will restore your peace, your prosperity, your progress because we believe that we are all one,” Isles assured.
“There are many of you our Caribbean brothers and sisters who can’t get a residency stamp in your passport. You can’t get it because the (CCM) government said that you got to come with a load of money. I want you to remember that it was the NRP Government led by Joseph Parry who said that once you found a job you [will] get a stamp. It wouldn’t cost you anything. It’s time you come out in your numbers and vote for NRP so that we can elevate you in this blessed land that you have called your home,” Isles counseled.
