At the prompting of Opposition Leader McKeeva Bush, the Progressives-led government will seek to implement some form of immigration protection for non-Caymanian nurses and helpers who provide constant care for elderly, ill or disabled Caymanians.
Mr. Bush introduced such protection – called specialist caregivers certificates – during his United Democratic Party’s former term in office. That legislation was repealed under Immigration Law amendments approved last year by the current government.
In a private members motion heard before the Legislative Assembly last week, Mr. Bush asked government to reinstitute the specialist caregivers proposal or something similar.
“These aged individuals are not used to, and cannot tolerate drastic changes and new faces around them most times,” Mr. Bush said. “I know there are many people in the same position.” Under the previous legislation, the certificate allowed individuals to remain in the Cayman Islands for another five years beyond the expiration of their final work permit – as long as they remained in the employ of the same family and cared for the same individual or individuals listed on the Certificate of Specialist Caregivers.
Currently, Cayman Islands Immigration Law requires all foreign workers to depart the Islands for at least one year following nine years of continuous residence here, unless those workers obtain permanent residence, which allows them to stay in Cayman for the rest of their lives.
It is generally difficult for lower-paid domestic helpers to obtain permanent residence, a problem acknowledged by Premier Alden McLaughlin last week.
“The great struggle is to reconcile the desire to have this person long term, with the concerns about how those people will fit into the immigration regime that we have,” Mr. McLaughlin said. “These caregivers are generally some of the lower paid persons in employment in the Cayman Islands and the chances of them being able to meet their permanent residence requirements…are quite slim in most instances.”
At the same time, Mr. McLaughlin said, any caregiver who was able to stay in Cayman for 10 years or more under an extended work permit scheme might be able to claim some citizenship rights under human rights legislation.
“What if that person can claim some right to security of tenure?” he asked.
Mr. McLaughlin said government intends to bring amendments to the Immigration Law, possibly later this year that would address a number of issues, and he hopes specialist caregivers could be one of them.
“When [the old Immigration Law] was changed, we all didn’t feel quite right about it,” Health Minister Osbourne Bodden said. “We can find a way to make this work.”
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