Chester Sam­bra­no

chester.sam­bra­no@guardian.co.tt

The Gov­ern­ment has pro­claimed leg­is­la­tion which will in­crease the num­ber of peo­ple from Cari­com mem­ber states who can en­ter and work in this coun­try, as well as al­low them to do so in­def­i­nite­ly.

In a me­dia state­ment yes­ter­day, For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Min­is­ter Dr Amery Browne an­nounced the Procla­ma­tion of the Amend­ments to the Im­mi­gra­tion (Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Skilled Na­tion­als) Act 2022 by Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes.

Min­is­ter Browne said the amend­ments “sig­nal Trinidad and To­ba­go’s on­go­ing com­mit­ment to the deep­en­ing and strength­en­ing of the re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion process, and brings Trinidad and To­ba­go in­to com­pli­ance with de­ci­sions of the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment re­gard­ing the Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas and the Free Move­ment Regime.”

With the amend­ments, the ex­pan­sion of the cat­e­gories of work­ers el­i­gi­ble for free move­ment with­in the re­gion moves from 5 (Uni­ver­si­ty grad­u­ates, artistes, mu­si­cians, me­dia work­ers and sports peo­ple) to 12 cat­e­gories.

Among the ad­di­tion­al cat­e­gories are agri­cul­ture work­ers and se­cu­ri­ty guards.

An­oth­er ma­jor de­vel­op­ment as a re­sult of the change will see Cari­com work­ers be­ing al­lowed to stay in T&T in­def­i­nite­ly.

In pi­lot­ing the Bill in the Low­er House of Par­lia­ment in June last year, Browne ex­plained that clause 5 amends sec­tions 3, 4, and 4(1), which seek to har­monise the pro­to­col for Cari­com na­tion­als at the port of en­try with the de­ci­sion of heads of gov­ern­ment at the Thir­teenth Reg­u­lar Meet­ing in 2009, that all el­i­gi­ble cat­e­gories of skilled com­mu­ni­ty na­tion­als must be grant­ed a def­i­nite en­try of six months if they present their skills cer­tifi­cate at a point of en­try, and must re­ceive the stamp “free move­ment, def­i­nite en­try, right to work, ver­i­fi­ca­tion re­quired” in their pass­port.

“The re­ceiv­ing coun­try has the right to ver­i­fy the qual­i­fi­ca­tions of the skilled na­tion­al. Once ver­i­fi­ca­tion has been com­plet­ed, an in­def­i­nite stay shall be grant­ed and the stamp en­ti­tled, “free move­ment, in­def­i­nite en­try, right to work” must be af­fixed in their pass­port. Again, bring­ing us in­to line with the rest of the re­gion,” he said.

As it stood be­fore, for en­try in­to T&T, there was an oblig­a­tion to reap­ply with­in six months of en­try.

Yes­ter­day, Browne told Guardian Me­dia a sys­tem of ver­i­fi­ca­tion is al­ready har­monised across mem­ber states and is in place.

He said, “Every cer­tifi­cate that we is­sue will come with an ad­vi­so­ry let­ter clear­ly out­lin­ing rights and re­spon­si­bil­i­ties.”

He ex­plained that the Im­mi­gra­tion De­part­ment will have two stamps - en­try for 6 months, right to work, ver­i­fi­ca­tion re­quired.”

Af­ter ver­i­fi­ca­tion, the oth­er stamp would read, “Free move­ment in­def­i­nite right to work.”

“If the hold­er of the cer­tifi­cate is found af­ter­wards to have false doc­u­ments, is in se­ri­ous breach of the law, or is a threat to na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty, the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty re­tains the right to re­voke the sta­tus as a per­mit­ted en­trant,” he said

Based on the leg­is­la­tion, the fine for such a breach is $100,000 and im­pris­on­ment for five years.

Com­ment­ing on the de­vel­op­ment, Na­tion­al Trade Union Cen­tre (NATUC)gen­er­al sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette sup­port­ed the move, which he de­scribed as long over­due.

“We can­not do it by our­selves, re­gard­less of how much mon­ey you have, how much gas mon­ey, how much oil, you can­not do it by your­self. We need to come to­geth­er as a body, as a re­gion and work in uni­ty for the de­vel­op­ment of the re­gion,” he said.

An­nisette al­so rub­bished the nar­ra­tive by some in the pub­lic space that peo­ple from oth­er coun­tries would be com­ing here to take jobs from lo­cals.

“We need to get past that nar­ra­tive, you know, ‘you com­ing to take my job’ be­cause those are things that have been in­stilled in our minds to bring about the con­tin­ued di­vi­sion that we have,” he said.

The pro­vi­sions im­ple­ment­ed in this coun­try have al­ready been in ef­fect in oth­er coun­tries in the re­gion.