'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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40 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.
U do not have nothing better to do hope all expatriate stamp support your business
“Put brakes on belongers, we giving too out!
A quota! A quota! Set numbers, I say—
Or we’ll lose this whole country by next Saturday.”
But the people just laugh, shaking their heads,
“Seventy-six years just to process the threads?
Who go wait ‘til retirement, rocking in chair,
When next door they get papers quick, clean, and fair?”
The rich growing richer, the poor eating stones,
We patching up roads with prayers and bones.
At the port an officer bark like a hound,
While leaders glide past, not feeling the ground.
They sip chilled water, in A/C rooms hide,
While potholes swallow the people outside.
Power gone if the rain dare to pour,
Sometimes there’s water, sometimes no more.
And thanks to the Premier, eggs now divine—
Only $4.99… tested on swine?
Have folks grown a third arm, a leg on they back?
Lord, try them first before stocking the rack.
So let Claude preach brakes, division, and fear,
While real issues spin like wheels in high gear.
We ask with a sigh, in laughter and pain:
“Who vetting the leaders who driving this train?”
Over 10 million paid to the government annual in work permit fee.
Another 500,000 paid for enter permit and stamps annually.
You further tax us when immigrants try to send money to our relatives.
Inmigrants contribute another 100 - 200 million to locals by paying them rent.
The very fee people that stay here for 20 years and get belonged is not enough to threaten anything in BVI.
What BVI should have been focusing on is land. Why did you allow the selling out entire islands (Peter Island, Moskito Island, Norman Island, etc) or selling an entire area like Oil Nut Bay to foreigners. Take back large acres of undeveloped land from resorts, they build on a section but still own the entire hill.
Investigate the sweetheart deal that sold Necker Island for $180k when the Island was listed at $4.5million. There is a case of fraud somewhere.
Perhaps, if Virgin Islanders, were willing to do blue- collared work, the country would not have had the need for all these migrant workers!
But y'all want dem here to do dutty work, and, after years of of qualifying for status, they should be denied?
WRONG!!!
AUSAR, IS, in agreement for all qualified persons to receive Belongership status!
Carry on !
Mike you like !
Immigration,,truth be told has economic and social benefits. Economic benefit include a)reverse population decline due to emigration, lower birth rate, etc, b) filling labour shortages, c) stimulate economic growth,d) ,growing tax base, e) increase consumer demand, f) creating innovation., etc. social: cultural enhancement, etc.
On the other hand, immigration a) put downward pressure on infrastructure, social services, resources, etc, b)put downward pressure on wages and job quality for some local workers, c)create social friction and strain between local and expats.
Moreover, large developed countries are and have also controlled immigration. For example,, in 1790, in the first nationalization/naturalization, the US was declared a white country. At the time, free blacks and slaves made up approximately 33% of the population, a concerning, concern. To maintain the majority status, immigration quotas were instituted based on skin color. The quota from European countries was 100%; African countries, 0 or near 0 % . The law was changed in the 1960s, changing from skin color to historical national origin migration. African and Caribbean countries were still at a disadvantage, for migration from these countries were low. Slaves were not considered immigrants. Today, the black population is approximately 13% of the US’ population.