'We have to put the brakes' on issuing of belonger status- Claude O. Skelton-Cline
According to Skelton-Cline, the recent Immigration and Passport Act should have included provisions related to a quota-setting committee, which was incorporated in the act.
The Immigration and Passport Act of 2025 states that the Board of Immigration will be responsible for recommending annual immigration quotas for residence or Belonger certificates to the Cabinet in accordance with the quota-setting objectives and the capacity of the Territory.
"I want to ask the government and I want you to ask your representatives, 'why and where is the committee that should be established relative to the issuance of belongership status in this country?'" Skelton-Cline said during his "Honestly Speaking" programme on Wednesday, September 17, 2025.
'Put some brakes on certain areas'
Noting that if the Virgin Islands continue along its current path of issuing belonger status, "we're going to lose this country, hook, line, and sinker", Skelton-Cline emphasised that Belonger status is a privilege, not a right; however, they should not have a say on the matter of independence.
"At what point do you put up some boundaries so you are not completely overrun?"
According to the commentator, a "brakes" need to be put on the issuing of belonger status, and that right now there are 600 applications for belongership pending.
He also reminded that 1200 belongership statuses were issued under the Fast Track Programme.
"We now have to put some qualifiers..We got to think. We have to look at the facts, look at the numbers, [and] ask for this quota committee, put some brakes on certain areas on this belongership status," Skelton-Cline stated.
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23 Responses to “'We have to put the brakes' on issuing of belonger status- Claude O. Skelton-Cline”
The man is right. There is no encouraged grift(???&&&#%)
What he is referring to is the over saturation of the bvi with people who are too ignorant, illiterate, or oblivious to the foolishness of leaders to stand up.
The country is morphing into a tunnel vision society where 70% of the population is focused on making as much money as possible, getting as much deals as possible at the expense of what our forefathers worked for.
Just look at Virgin Islands day and festival. 60% of residents don’t care at support or to keep these things going.
The electorate has been compartmentalized.
70% for the win
30% for the culture
5% speaking up 30% listening 1% doing anything
Free education for children of 65%
Scholarships for children of 60%
The statistics are dumbfounding and you want to expand that injust margin by complacency. Wow
This issue can be dealt with without your input, backoff, sir, and be quiet. You are one of the B.V.I irritating, and disgusting person.
Why haven't you speak out openly on the secret salary raisd allegedly approved by the HoA led by the Premier, not by the UK, hypocrite man?
If we had roads like Cayman , businesses like PR , Food like Santo , Factories like Panama , no one would be worried about belonging and expats taking over. It would have been a case of you asking for more expats to work
So get off your hate horse and tell your government to fix the place and let the people eat.
American is a huge country but many Caribbean people move their on Green Cards and never naturalize, sometimes for 40 years. I know many Virgin Islanders do as well. So while we have the US currency, we will sink if thi continues. Claude Skelton-Cline, you are absolutely correct.
I am not so sure how many of those who get the belonger status real lived on this island, work on this island, spend money here, and pay tax here. I believe in a quota, but lets understand something. Do you know how many born here natives between the age of 22-35 have wife and husbands that are expats? when I realized that my friend all four her son's wives are expats. I had to say game changer!
The dynamics and demographics has change and Claude still holler about belonger status, when the laws here will give them up to burn, is when those same sons wives cannot get jobs here, and so the husbands now have to go where the wives lives in another island to be employed and live happier. So, more than half of the millennials will end up living abroad or down island by 2030.
So, Claud why not ask the government to change the status of having their wives and husbands lived here for six months to one year before given the opportunity to gain their status, prepare job offering letters for their wives and husbands to live and work in the island, raise their children here , which will add to the population growth for nation building. Think about it.