Why status deals are bad news for many

Today let’s continue to look at how the status situation is going to be played out. 

Firsty, the removal of term limits on work permits.

When the OBA removed term limits they made an easier path for 7,501 people to stay here and claim status rights.  Term limits were initially instituted to prevent people from remaining in Bermuda for long periods of time and then expecting to gain citizenship. 

The OBA replaced term limits with a waiver to ensure that our guest workers understand that Bermuda does not grant rights of permanent residence. Permit holders were to sign these waivers by April 30, 2013 declaring that they have no expectation of such residence.

As of May 31, 2013, a total of 2,596 (or 38%) waivers were still unsigned. The OBA has not ensured that people sign this waiver. I wonder why?

International Human Rights issues

According to Article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “everyone has the right to a nationality” and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality”.

The waiver appears to contravene an individual’s fundamental human right to long-term residency and citizenship.  As it is legally impossible to waive one’s fundamental human rights, we could be opening ourselves up to many of our 7,501 work permit holders staking a claim to residency rights.

I personally challenge Minister Fahy to prove in writing that those waivers can never be successfully challenged in an international court of law. I can near guarantee he will not be able to do so. 

So, ask yourselves, why has the OBA walked us into a road without a U-turn? Within 5-10 years we can potentially see 7,501 persons demanding Permanent Residency Rights and eventually status.  

“We will expand the voter base,” the OBA promised in its election campaign.

Campaign promises

When asked how they would do so, there has yet to be an answer.

The OBA has broken umpteen campaign promises within eight months of coming into office. So they know they have lost the support of thousands of Bermudians. 

There are many Bermudians — civil servants, seniors, contractors — who  regret ever voting for the OBA. Hence the OBA want and need more votes for the next election or they are doomed.  

So what better place to find this new voter base but through 6,075 PRCs who are granted Bermudian status?

“Sir John Swan went on to posit that the majority of these people were white and unlikely to vote for the Progressive Labour Party” — Royal Gazette, September 18, 2012   

Note that 18 per cent of PRC holders  are black.

So who gains? who loses?

Well that depends on which side of the fence one sits.

For the real estate cartel it means more sales and commissions on Bermudian properties. For grocery store owners it means more persons paying $300-$500 per week for groceries. For the persons owning office buildings, they will have more high paying tenants.

For the regular working class Bermudians it means; increased competition for jobs, house rentals,house sales and land for Bermudian children. Once our land is sold off, it is gone forever.  

Since 2000, 70 per cent of people leaving Bermuda to live are Bermudians.Most are driven out due to high costs of rents,groceries or inability to purchase a home in Bermuda.

Why is the push to get non-Bermudians into Bermuda, but no effort whatsoever to lower the costs of living for Bermudians to be able to afford to return to Bermuda?

Was that not an OBA Campaign pledge to lower the cost of living? Is the plan to price Bermudians out and make way for high income individuals? Stay tuned for part 3 of this series. 

‘We see their scheme and we know their plot’ — Ziggy Marley

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