Philipsburg:--- Minister of Justice David Dick who is on the island confirmed that his 2006 Immigration policy was never fully implemented. He said part of the policy could not be implemented due to the lack of proper technology. The Minister said he welcomes the support given by the island leader on his policy and promised to meet with her to further discuss the policy and its implementation. One of the goals of this policy is to fully deal with the amount of illegal immigrants on St. Maarten. Minister Dick said that the grace period of 2000 and 2002 did not fully solve the problem since most of the people who were legalized during the grace period is now living on the island illegally again even though they are gainfully employed. He said due to the fact the proper technology and materials were not in place they could not have dealt with the immigration issues differently. He said he is grateful for the support of the leader of government who plans to meet with him to discuss the integration of labor, immigration and education. He said when he took office he got a justice chain that looks more like Flintstones. Dick said when he took office he did not know the exact state of affairs of the justice chain, thus he has to work much harder to accomplish what is needed to improve justice in the Antilles. He said the justice system was not in line with the 21st century and he had to slowly build the system, making sure all that is necessary are in place. Already there is lot of work done on IT, technical and human resources.
The Minister also acknowledged there are some problems with the passport system at the Princess Juliana International Airport. He said he personally requested to see how the system functions and he saw some glitches. "Indeed the system is slower than that of Curacao by a few seconds" But he said he cannot say what is the cause, which can vary from the memory to the amount of bytes available on St. Maarten.
He said he would be calling on the technicians to look into the matter and see what exactly the problem is since this system is working perfectly in Curacao and Bonaire even though the server is in Curacao. He said even though he has some ideas on the matter but does not intend to guess on what the problem could be, the only way to go is to solve this problem by repairing the system which is considered to a very good system to regulate immigration.
The Minister said they are doing their best to combat crime which is hindering the economic development. However, he felt crime is not a problem for the justice department alone. He said the immigration system at the Airport is a good start since they are able to document all those persons who are entering and leaving St. Maarten. He said he fully supports the views of the executive council who said if crime is not contained then it would be useless to create economic stimulus to boost the economy.
