Cayman Islands Honorary Consul for Jamaica Robert Hamaty issued a statement Friday expressing grave concern with the recent comments of Work Permit Board Chairman David Ritch with regard to Jamaicans living in Cayman.
‘The statements have had a negative impact on the Jamaican community who feel alienated and hurt and not sure if this is Government’s position or only Mr. David Ritch,’ Mr. Hamaty’s statement said.
At the Council of Associations’ Immigration Forum on 6 October, Mr. Ritch spoke at length about the situation caused by the large contingent of Jamaican work permit holders in the Cayman Islands.
Nearly half of the 24,000 work permit holders in Cayman are Jamaican. Mr. Ritch said that without the seven-year term limit – or rollover policy – Jamaicans could outnumber established Caymanians here in a short time period.
Mr. Ritch also noted that if all labourers – which most Jamaicans here are – were allowed to stay in the Cayman Islands long enough to gain Caymanian Status, they would also be able to bring an unknown number of their dependents he as well.
Mr. Hamaty said in his statement that some of Mr. Ritch’s statements were derogatory and he demanded a retraction and apology from him.
‘It is not in the best interest of any country to alienate a nationality or encourage polarisation by means of divisive statements,’ he said.
Mr. Hamaty pointed out the many contributions of Jamaicans to the Cayman Islands.
‘Many children have been raised by Jamaican caregivers,’ he said. ‘Many children have been taught by Jamaican teachers.
‘Many of the sick and injured have been cared for by Jamaican nurses.
‘Many of our laws have been enforced by Jamaican policemen.
‘Many high officials in the judiciary are Jamaicans.’
Mr. Hamaty noted that there are more than 5,000 Jamaicans that have been resident in the Cayman Islands for more than eight years and are therefore eligible to apply for permanent residency.
‘No doubt these individuals have satisfied the immigration criteria that allowed them to remain in the islands for these many years, and although Mr. Ritch is not the chairman of the Permanent Residency Board, his statements could prejudice (their applications for permanent residency).’
Mr. Hamaty also pointed out that not all Jamaicans necessarily want to obtain Permanent Residency or to gain citizenship and vote.
‘We urge the Government to review the proposed Immigration Law with the view of allowing (Jamaicans) to continue to work after seven years of residency,’ he said. ‘What Mr. Ritch needs to find out is how many of these 5,000 Jamaicans want to apply for Permanent Residency.’
Mr. Hamaty said many Jamaicans understand why the rollover policy or some other form of population control is necessary.
‘…These small economically fragile islands cannot accommodate the numbers regardless of nationality without the proper infrastructure,’ he stated. ‘However the implementation is very sensitive and must be a fair process for rich and poor, regardless of race or nationality.’
Mr. Hamaty also said Cayman’s economy required talented skilled as well as unskilled workers to operate successfully.
‘We all need to work together for a better solution [than] a policy of changing one set of employees for another unknown [set],’ he said. ‘It is not only the cost, but the inefficiency and possible failure of one’s company that’s concerning.’
Although it did not concern Mr. Ritch, Mr. Hamaty also criticised the Government’s newly implemented Permanent Residency point system, which awards points in one section based on the percentage of the nationality of the person applying compared to the total work permit holders in the Cayman Islands. Under the formula, all nationalities except Jamaicans get points in the system.
‘It is… wrong and discriminative to give Jamaicans zero points towards their permanent residency application,’ he said. ‘Jamaicans should get the highest possible point based on their contribution to these islands.’
Mr. Ritch issued a written response to Mr. Hamaty’s statement late Friday afternoon. He defended his bringing up the subjects he did at the Immigration Forum.
‘I have stated many times before that a true understanding of the need for the Term Limit policy on work permits – also known as the rollover policy – is not possible without knowing both the statistical information relating to foreign nationals living and working in these islands, as well as the significance of that information when broken down into its component parts,’ he said. ‘Consequently, it is not possible to have any meaningful public discussion on this or other immigration issues without reference to those numbers.’
Mr. Ritch said that because Jamaicans represented an overwhelming majority of all foreign nationals working in Cayman, it was virtually impossible to discuss the topic of Immigration without referring to their nationality.
‘The same would be true of any nationality that represented such a dominant percentage of the work force and, by extension, of the population of these islands as a whole.’
Mr. Ritch also defended his statement concerning the dependents of work permit holders.
‘The number of potential dependents that may well accompany the thousands of persons who would ultimately become Caymanian in the event the rollover policy was ever abandoned is hugely significant to these islands for, amongst other reasons, the impact that may be brought to bear on the educational system,’ he said. ‘To ignore them in this debate would be a serious oversight.’
Mr. Ritch said he has made a great personal and financial sacrifice to work on immigration matters over the past 14 months in effort to ensure the Cayman Islands would remain a desirable place to live and work for all residents, including the many Jamaicans that have become Caymanian.
‘It was certainly never my intention to insult anyone in the process and to the extent that the Jamaican community may or does feel that my remarks were insulting to them, then I have no hesitation in apologizing for that,’ he said.
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