Host of Honestly Speaking, Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline has said the Belongership should no longer be synonymous with being a Virgin Islander, arguing that Belongership status must be divorced from Immigration and Labour control. Photo: Internet Source

Pastor Claude O. Skelton-Cline during the November 11, 2026, airing of his show Honestly Speaking on ZBVI 780 AM. Photo: Facebook

Mr Skelton-Cline said this is something he will be recommending and advocating for from “whatever seat I sit in”. 

He made this suggestion during the November 11, 2026, airing of his show on ZBVI 780 AM. 

Persons should be free at some point

“Belongership status needs to be divorced from Immigration and Labour in that what we need to afford persons who come to this country for economic reasons, we need to afford them the opportunity to, at some point in time, be free from immigration control and seeking annual permits,” he argued. 

Mr Skelton-Cline clarified he was laying down the framework, not knowing all the particulars, as that is for the experts to do, starting with a policy. 

“What we can no longer afford to do is to make Belongership synonymous with being a Virgin Islander…going forward, this is going to benefit existing Belongers; this is going to benefit Ancestral Belongers, or Ancestral persons, Belongers who have been here by time or tenure.”

We must begin population management

He added that this should not affect whatever rights and privileges existing Belongers have. 

“We are a small nation; we must get our hearts and our hands around and begin to manage population, growth and development.”

Mr Skelton-Cline doubled down, saying the current apparatus must be divorced from what it means to be a Belonger. 

“We must divorce that for making persons to be able to operate seamlessly outside of immigration and labour control.”