PHILIPSBURG - It was reported in the local media that Ms. Fredericks was a surprised guest at the Naturalization Ceremony on December 15, Kingdom Day. However, according to Ms. Fredericks, she was an unwelcomed, uninvited onlooker with tears in her eyes.
She stood in the doorway of the A.C. Wathey Legislative Hall during the entire ceremony while her children sat in the hot sun on the balcony.
"When one is a guest, one is usually welcomed and given a place to sit," she said. That was not the case for her family.
"We witnessed non-nationals with identities from thousands of miles away receive a new identity in our own country while we could not." My children were born here. St. Maarten is their home.
"I have lived here since the 1960s, attended the Oranje School and Milton Peters College, worked here for government as a civil servant, and I still have no nationality. What more must I do? Where must I go?" she asked.
She noted further that, she received no firm commitments on Kingdom Day. The things told to her, were things she has been told over and over again for the last twenty-five years by the authorities.
She wants concrete commitments that her kids would not be continually harassed by employers and employment agencies to produce a passport to get a job or stressed-out by banks to present a passport to open a bank account. She wants to know that her kids will have equal access to health-care, social-security and governmental scholarships.
"My children need a place to belong and call home to enable them to find their place in their society, culture, family, and nation. I need a firm commitment that I would be given a travel document to be able to seek medical assistance outside of the Netherlands Antilles as soon as possible, she said."
Meanwhile, Human Rights advocate, Terry Peterson stated that, "Our ultimate goal is full citizenship for Ms. Fredericks and her children. We have not ruled out any means of achieving this goal, whether it be a formal requests to the VNP in Philipsburg; Het Koninklijk Huis, Kabinet van de Gevolmachtigde Minister van de Netherlandse Antillen, or the Ministerie van Binnenlandse Zaken en Koninkrijksrelaties in Den Haag; the Cabinet of the Governor of the Netherlands Antilles in Willemstad; the various courts; and/or support from regional and international Human Rights Organizations.
Clearly, Ms. Fredericks, based on the principle of allegiance or effective connection, has acquired functional citizenship by long residence, contributed to her community and paid her taxes as a former civil servant, but she is still being denied her right to freedom of movement, the right to leave and to return to her country, and the right to a nationality. But we remain confident that we will have a formal official response from the Crown by Christmas."
