Dawn Beach:--- Reacting to the motion presented in the second chamber against the Brooks Tower Accord Minister of Justice Magali Jacoba said that she is quite disappointed with those in the second chamber since the motion was based on incorrect information. Jacoba said she had expected those in the second chamber would have done their research prior to presenting such a motion."One would expect people from a second chamber of such countries would at least get their facts straight." Jacoba said for the second chamber to accept the motion with erroneous information leaves her disappointed since those in Holland would always point fingers to the Justice Ministry of the Netherlands Antilles and say they must comply with the laws fully.
Jacoba gave a presentation on the Brooks Tower Accord managed to give a presentation to the Dutch delegation that was on St. Maarten for the political steering group meetings. Jacoba said she is hopeful that the Dutch now has enough information on the BTA trajectory. She said the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands Antilles has also agreed to give their Kingdom partners information periodically.
On another note, the Minister of Justice said she is satisfied with the way the process on the BTA is going. She said that she has heard several remarks that she would not be meeting her target for this project. Jacoba made clear that even though she has been making constant appeals to all undocumented persons living in the Netherlands Antilles to register she did not set any target. Jacoba said her sole intention with the BTA project was to give all undocumented residents residing in the Netherlands Antilles an opportunity to regulate their status. The Minister said that all recipients of the BTA permits would have an open door to be part of the regular system to obtain their residency. The Minister said preliminary indications are that close to 4,000 persons living on St. Maarten would receive the BTA permits while that figure on Curacao are expected to surpass St. Maarten. Jacoba called on everyone to look at the BTA process as an opportunity to those residing illegally in the Antilles. She also made another appeal to those residents who have not registered to do so before December 15 since this would be their last chance.
Responding to the discontentment with St. Maarten Leader of Government regarding the requirements, Jacoba said she discussed this matter with Commissioner William Marlin. She said both Curacao and St. Maarten has the same requirements but admitted that those on St. Maarten executing the project are much stricter. The Minister of Justice said that in several cases they were forced to ask the applicants for more proof simply because there are people who are doing their best to defraud the system. She said there are people who would say that they arrived in the Antilles in 2001 and somewhere between those times to now, they had left the island and lived one year somewhere else. When that happen the person cannot be qualified simply because they are only allowed to be outside the Netherlands Antilles for nine months. She said there are times when the information that is provided is not easy to prove and definitely more proof would have to be submitted.
