VI immigration laws unreasonable/unjust to expats - Magistrate Richard G. Rowe
Mr Rowe was a guest on Fresh Radio Vybz with host Paul A. Peart aka 'Gadiethz' on January 7, 2018 when he spoke candidly of what he termed the unfairness of the territory's immigration laws toward expatriates.
'Unreasonable equates to unjust'
"In the BVI three months for leaving is unreasonable. If it is unreasonable I think you could easily equate that to unjust," said the attorney, who has been practicing law in the territory for more than a decade.
Mr Rowe was at the time addressing questions posed to him by Mr Peart as it relates to expatriates made redundant by companies in the VI.
Following the devastation of hurricanes Irma and Maria on September 6 and 18, 2017 hundreds of expatriates were left jobless as their places of employment were ravaged. Some businesses were able to bounce back on a much smaller scale while there are those whose doors remain closed.
However, in some cases, there was no questioning the need to let employees go but the issue was how most of these places handled their expatriate employees, by sending them home without their due redundancy pay.
"Expatriates take up most of the lowest paid jobs and don't have money to fight employers in the court for them to respect the law that says they must be paid redundancy after three months of employment."
Breaking it down, Mr Rowe explained, "let's say you are made redundant at a restaurant, you are paid a low wage…you are told by immigration that you have to leave the country. How then that person would be able to employ the service of a lawyer to go through two to three years of legal protest to obtain the benefits that the law provides for redundancy? Fifteen weeks per year.... very unlikely."
He also said the cost of hiring a lawyer is usually out of reach for the low paid expatriate worker.
Mr Rowe alluded to the fact that the High Court has not had a sitting since the hurricanes of September, which means many persons laid off would not have even had the opportunity to attempt to seek legal justice.
Legal reform
Asked if he thinks there needs to be a reform of the legal/judicial systems/laws in the territory, Mr Rowe said the aspect he would like to see address is the slow pace of justice in the courts, largely because there are too few judges and magistrates.
There are only two permanent magistrates and judges in the Virgin Islands.
"There are only two permanent magistrates and the work they have is tremendously large. The work that comes before them far outstrips their capacity to deal with them in an effective way. So that's a major problem that requires some change."
On the part of the High Court, Mr Rowe said the two judges’ work is divided, where one deals with civil matters and the other criminal matters.
"Two are inadequate to meet the needs of the territory. There should be at least in the Magistrate’s Court, room for family court and traffic separately and in the High Court there is need for at least another two judges to deal with the heavy load that the judges have there."
See links below to radio show, Fresh Radio Vybz with Paul A. Peart aka ‘Gadiethz’:
https://tunein.com/radio/ Freshradiovybz-s297104/ and http://rdo.to/FRV2
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37 Responses to “VI immigration laws unreasonable/unjust to expats - Magistrate Richard G. Rowe”
Also what are the laws in Jamaica and other countries Mr lawyer. You all like talking bout unfair when the rules and laws in your country worst. I could speak from experience.
My question. If you loose your job and can’t get another one, how you goin afford to stay on that country. If you want to fight you employer you could still do that from wherever you go. Better to fight while you have a job than without one.
Don't you all remind virgin islanders about how their country is all the time just as this lawyer is doing?
This is an area where the ball was dropped for both the employer and the employee because this is definitely not normal times or a usual situation.
It is not at all being mean. We are in crisis and locals have nowhere else to run. We need work at home. So there is a flipside to all this. BVIslanders being laid off by the Trust companies, law firms, banks and the expats are still working in these institutions and have to wait months and months and months to find something else to do while labour permits are being issued. Do you see us on here crying foul? No we keep going. But Mr. Peart has left us but don't want to stay out of our business. Makes me wonder why he left at all. Hmmm. I wonder. Mr. Rowe you know better.
As to Grandma "pass you *$& go from here"
no automatic STATUS BUT THE CURRENT GOVERNMENT SAID YOU HAVE TO BE HERE 20 YEARS TO apply FOR RESIDENCE STATUS. WHILE THE IMMIGRATION LAW SAYS SOMETHING DIFFERENT AND LESS RESTRICTIVE.
We have to realize that the BVI.. is a small territory.
Why is it that children are still coming in our school.
Over here in Anegada the school is full. But still I see children coming in from other countries.
come and hustle for money and cheat Americans. Some Americans here are bad and use their money to control
and manipulate, but you seem to be OK with those ones. Unfortunately you have gone too far and this commenter
is not at liberty to tell you what is coming, but it will suck bad. You deserve it. Racist scum.