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Last Updated: Feb 6, 2017 - 2:32:04 PM |
 The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration stated on the 11th March 2013 that it is the PLP’s plan to cease issuing work permits for maids, housekeepers and labourers within a year. The good Minister alluded to the fact that cabinet will work in conjunction with the Department of Labour and the National Training Program so that this “cease order” would be put into effect.
The procedure, as it now stands to obtain a work permit for maids, housekeepers or labourers is for the applicant to fill out an application form from the Immigration Department, advertise in the newspapers for that particular post and obtain a Notice of Vacancy from the Department of Labour. If the Notice of Vacancy is granted by the Department of Labour that means that there were no Bahamians interested in that particular job or willing to do that particular job. The application and the Notice of Vacancy are put before the Immigration Board for a determination. It should be noted that the application is not put before the Immigration Board if the Notice of Vacancy is not approved by the Department of Labour. Therefore the Notice of Vacancy is a precondition to the application being heard by the Immigration Board.
The significance of the Notice of Vacancy is very telling. If, according to the Minister, there were in 2012, 1801 work permits granted for caregivers, live in maids and housekeepers and in the category of labourers, gardeners and handymen, 2340 work permits were granted in that same year, there must have been Notices of Vacancies attached to the applications or the original applications as some of these applications may have been renewals.
The fact of the matter is that Bahamians are unwilling to be, live in housekeepers (Bahamians don’t want to live in other Bahamian’s home) and labourers! This is a fact recognized by the good Minister himself when he intimated that conventional wisdom is that Bahamians do not want to do these kinds of jobs.
So my question to this administration is what do you do when you cease issuing these permits and there are no Bahamians or very few Bahamians willing to do these jobs? The repercussions can be far reaching. The effects would not only be felt in the individual’s homes but throughout the business community. Maids and live in housekeepers play a significant role in affording parents the opportunity to go to work and contribute to our economy. The reality is that such a policy would go as far as retarding the recovery of the economy in this economic recession. Many international investors would look at this policy and be very reluctant to invest in the Bahamas as a result. It is a known fact that when investors come to the Bahamas, there is more often than not a labour component that is necessary. In this regard, for the government to blatantly stop issuing permits for labourers can be most detrimental. In some circumstances, there may be certain qualifications in relation to labour that Bahamians may not be qualified to do…as we have seen with Atlantis and Baha Mar.
The position taken by the PLP administration in this matter is quite extreme, lacks foresight and ought to be reconsidered in the best interest of the Bahamas. Persons who have valid work permits in the Bahamas contribute economically to this country whereas those persons who are here illegally place a tremendous burden on the economy. Instead of making statements that are detrimental to our economical development, the PLP administration ought to therefore concentrate on dealing with the illegal immigration problem that this country faces.
© Copyright 2013 by thebahamasweekly.com
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