PHILIPSBURG:--- Member of Parliament George Pantophlet took note of the remarks made by the Minister of General Affairs Sarah Wescot-Williams during Wednesday's press briefing on the cleaning up of the civil register. He hopes that the specific questions that were posed by his person are answered as soon as possible. This should not be difficult since according to the Minister the laws are already in place. Some might be saying leave this matter alone until after the Lenten season or the carnival. But for the young man who was 3 years old when he received the Dutch Nationality and now at the age of about 23 was told that he has no rights to it, time is of essence. To the person who after having the passport for some 27 years and is now being told that a mistake was made by the civil registrar because they were acknowledged at 19 instead of 18 and therefore has no rights to the Dutch nationality is being told to apply for residency permit time is of essence. Because of this their child who is a minor their passport was taken back. To these persons time is of essence. This person has already spent thousands of dollars seeking legal advice. And this is a fact. What is very harsh but apparently legal is that when mistakes are made in this case at the Census office by civil servants or a civil servant the person requesting the document albeit a passport may it be wrong birth date misspelling of a name and so on or whatever suffers the consequences thereof. This procedure must be looked at. The lives of these persons have been disrupted and will never be the same.
