Brooks Tower Accord: Six-week grace period for "illegals"

October 23, 2009 7:22 AM

PHILIPSBURG--Antillean Justice Minister Magali Jacoba is giving undocumented persons living in the Netherlands Antilles six weeks – from November 3 to December 15 – to legalise their status before she launches intense immigration controls on all five islands.

With island territories affirming to her that they are ready, Minister Jacoba has decided to implement the vaunted immigration-amnesty Brooks Tower Accord.

In keeping with that decision, during the November 3 to December 15 grace period anyone who has been residing in the Netherlands Antilles since before 2006, but does not have the relevant papers, can request temporary legal status. After that they will have no more chances, Justice Ministry representatives told St. Maarten reporters Wednesday.

“We will be sharpening our controls [on undocumented residents],” the minister said.

Undocumented residents who arrived here before 2001 or who moved to the island between 2002 and 2005 can request residence papers. “From there on, they can continue as documented residents of our country,” State Secretary for Justice Ernie Simmons told reporters. “After that they can get the documents to continue their residence.”

Anyone who arrived after 2006 must leave, but will not be penalised, and can apply from his/her country, Simmons said.

The Brooks Tower Accord affords undocumented residents a one-year permit. During that year, authorities expect the immigrant worker to secure all the paperwork to continue applying for residence and work permission, or to leave. Immigration controls will start soon after the application period ends.

The Central Government plans to launch a massive information campaign, targeting newspaper readers, radio listeners and Web users in five languages to get the message to undocumented residents ahead of the campaign.

Minister Jacoba assured reporters that the only hurdle to implementing the agreement – getting staff, equipment and a location – was no longer an issue. “We have the staff ready now; we also have the equipment,” Jacoba said. She had said twice earlier this month that the Brooks Tower Accord would not be implemented until all five island territories were ready.

The plan is simple: undocumented persons living here can register at the new Immigration and Naturalisation Department (IND) building on weekdays between 4:00pm and 10:00pm and Saturdays from 8:00am to 4:00pm. Only persons who meet the basic criteria can register.

The agreement’s amnesty applies to persons who arrived before December 31, 2001, and between January 1, 2002, and December 31, 2005. Persons living here longest can apply on their own, proving only that they have lived on the island without interruption.

Persons who arrived here in the four years 2002 through 2005 need employers to apply for them.

The Brooks Tower Accord was signed in 2007 by former Antillean Justice Minister David Dick and the five Lt. Governors then representing the islands. The Central Government has estimated that 20,000 undocumented persons live in St. Maarten alone.

State Secretary Simmons said non-nationals living here could expect no more than a two-week turnover between requesting papers and receiving them. “If you apply on November 3, you can get them back by November 15,” Simmons said.

Organisers of the information campaign want to reach as many undocumented persons as possible by tailoring their print, broadcast and Web ads to the non-nationals who could become legal. “The idea is to reach the undocumented person personally,” said Jefka Alberta, who helped plan the project. “This is to get the effect of one person talking to another person.”

Ads will run in English, Dutch, Spanish, Papiamentu and, a first, Creole, and will be on-air as early as today, October 22, Alberta told reporters here.

23 October 2009