Chief Prosecutor Hans Mos confirmed on Sunday that his office is of the opinion that many persons who submitted their request for a BTA permit as of November 22 2010 submitted false or forged documents in order to obtain a residency and work permit. Mos said he advised the Minister to review the files to make sure that permits are given out to people who are really working in the community.
"If what was submitted from November 22 to December 30th is correct then unemployment on St. Maarten has decreased." Mos said.
The prosecutor's office is expected to write a report after the BTA criminal investigation is completed which will serve as a guideline to government when it comes to dealing with the issuance of working and residency permits in the future.
In the meantime, SMN News has learnt that several companies filed for people who are not on their payroll. Many of these companies provided bogus job contracts, letters and even payslips to people who are not working for them. It is also understood that undocumented persons paid an exorbitant amount of monies to obtain job contracts, letters and payslips to file for a BTA permit during the extension period. Already a Spanish church is implicated in selling false job contracts and payslips to people for large sums of money.
One source said a particular job placement agency filed for a number of persons who they claimed will be working to build the causeway that is proposed by the Minister of infrastructure. The source said while parliament is yet to approve the causeway project people are already recruiting foreign workers.
SMN News further learnt that the permits were filed under competent construction companies. The source said the owners of these companies were questioned during the criminal investigations when the investigators saw phony documents in the BTA extension files.
Already the team of investigators has determined that at least 80% of the files submitted during the BTA extension 2 were from persons who never had a BTA permit. While this might come as a surprise to many it should be noted that while the BTA 1 had three categories (ways) for people to legalise themselves the BTA extension 2 had only two categories as category three was eliminated from the process. Even though the Minister of Justice has said on a number of occasions that he did not change the BTA policy for applicants during the BTA extension 2 project it was clear that category 3 was eliminated as persons who arrived on St. Maarten after 2005 was allowed to apply for a BTA permit and to remain on the island while their request is being processed.
It is still not clear when the persons who applied during the extension period will be granted documents or if they will be asked to leave the island.
It should be noted that the Executive Council Labour decree of September 2009 in article 7 states that work permits can only be renewed for a maximum of three years. Meaning that those persons whose permit expires between October and December 2012 will not be able to obtain another work permit, these persons are mandated by law to leave the island for at least one year before they can reapply for a work permit.
