If US sweeps VI of green card holders '90% will be gone'- Premier Fahie
Premier Fahie was at the time responding to a number of questions submitted by concerned persons ahead of last night’s, May 20, 2019 town hall meeting where he disclosed his observation. The meeting was held before a full audience at the Eileene L. Parsons Auditorium at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC) in Paraquita Bay. The meeting comprised of indigenous Virgin Islanders, belongers, residents and persons yet without status.
The meeting was called by the Hon Fahie-led Government following much concerns being raised when Government announced its move to amend the Immigration and Passport Act and to grant residency and or belonger status’ to eligible persons.
The Immigration and Passport (Amendment) Act was set for three readings on the Order Paper at the Third Sitting of the First Session of the Fourth House of Assembly (HoA) of the Virgin Islands on May 17, 2019; however, the second and third readings were pulled as Government decided to listen to the will of people, which was to have more discussions on the matter.
Giving away the birth right?
One of the concerns of many persons opposing the programme was that it would “give away the birth rights” of indigenous Virgin Islanders.
Stating that his ultimate goal is one that is expected to be met with some level of resistance, Premier Fahie said, “I want to be honest with you. Is this really about giving away the birth rights? Let me say this here, for example, we choose to born our children in the US, while it might seem like I am getting on, I am an indigenous, if the US comes and make a sweep of the BVI of everyone with a green card, more than 90% will be gone. “
The Premier clarified that it is not that he does not believe in the rights of the indigenous, “But when we born our children in the US and they born theirs in the US we continue to make sure that we do not regularise ourselves because then we lose our birth right in the BVI. So, we are partially contributing to the decay of BVI Islanders remaining indigenous.”
He continued, “Yet persons of many nationalities are staying here and helping to populate the country and build it 25, 35, 40 years now. Some of the same people have children who grew up and born here. Some of us have other nationalities, what are we saying?”
Premier Fahie said there is much work for many indigenous Virgin Islanders to do because under the British Nationality Act the more persons continue to give birth to their children outside, the more Virgin islanders will lose their rights.
"After the second generation is born in the US you lose your rights here. That’s not Andrew Fahie telling you, that is the law. So if we keep going and get children abroad and our children get children abroad and their children get children abroad we lose our own status here based on the law.”
He added that immigration reform will have to “make sure that we loop back in those two or three generations that we have lost.”
Looking out for best interest of now & future
Meanwhile, Premier Fahie stressed that the intention is to managing the process of regularisation carefully to achieve the main goal of uniting the Virgin Islands to face the challenges that may lie ahead.
“We are looking out for the best interest of now and in the future but I want to say to you that nothing is going to be given away here. Everything is going to be gained which is unity and a clear way forward on a topic that everyone has been avoiding for the last forty years, you could say, and it continues to fester.
“We either deal with this problem now on our own or somebody is going to deal with it for us very soon [and] in a manner that we all will regret, both the Caribbean and the indigenous Virgin Islander.”
Premier Fahie reminded that for the last six years he has being saying it is either the Virgin Islands police itself or someone will police it in a manner that all will regret.
He said there are now agencies that have more authority than the sitting Government itself, “Because we did not police ourselves and I cannot be leading you knowing what’s coming and stand here and please some to the detriment of all.”
Noting that the process of immigration reform must start now, Premier Fahie said, “Putting your head in the sand like an ostrich, whether indigenous or Caribbean, is to the detriment of all.”
The next Town Hall Meeting is slated for the Catholic Community Centre in Virgin Gorda from 6:00pm on Thursday, May 23, 2019.
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34 Responses to “If US sweeps VI of green card holders '90% will be gone'- Premier Fahie”
Stop trying to scare us into the unknown. If you know something say it!
Websters: : "produced, growing, living, or occurring naturally in a particular region or environment; indigenous plants; the indigenous culture"
Around here that's Ciboney or Taino. Down island it's Carib or Garifuna.
Don't disrespect those people by simply removing them from our region's troubled story like they never existed!
BVIslanders are BVIslanders. Most have a slave origin, which means their ancestors were native to Africa, not these islands.
It's a small but important difference. It does not change your argument if you use a different word, but please don't use 'indigenous' to mean BVIslanders.
Respect the peoples who were virtually wiped out by the Europeans, just as you demand respect for the people once enslaved by Europeans.
I from here, but it is good you are wiling to show some respect to our good friends who live among us and complain all the time about this insult.
On a different level...I hope Andrew don't blow our visa free access to the US...the people will crucify him....slow your roll dude.
We all came from Africa, true, but that does not mean that over millions of years we didn’t migrate all over the planet and our skin colors transform in Color while our cultures slowly adapted to our environments. Around here were those Ciboney or Taino.
You can claim what you like about why Africans are superior to everyone else. The point is, in this context, please use the right language.
‘Indigenous’ is not a word that describes BVI slanders, that is all.