Philipsburg:--- Minister of Justice Magali Jacoba has sent a letter to the Lt. Governor of St. Maarten Franklyn Richards asking him to make sure the department of Labour and Social Affairs do its job when processing work permits under the Brooks Tower Accord.Jacoba told SMN News that a large of amount of people who applied for the Brooks Tower permit category two will suffer comes March 1 since the island labour department is not working efficiently to process the working permits for persons who qualified for the category two permits.
Jacoba said when the guidelines of the Brooks Tower Agreement was drafted each island participated and St. Maarten is the only island who wanted the recipients of the category two permits to get their working permit before they are able to pick up the residency permit. She said in all the other islands such and Curacao, Saba, and Statia the applicants are asked to pay their processing fee and then they can pick up their Brooks Tower Residency permit. However, St. Maarten chose to do things differently Jacoba said because of the choices St. Maarten has made several people will stand to get hurt.
Jacoba said during the processing of the Brooks Tower her Ministry discovered a lot of discrepancies that is hindering the people from becoming legal residents. The Minister said while the Federal Government is responsible for residency permits there is nothing she can physically do for the labour permits since that department falls directly under the island territories. As such, she has chosen to advise the Lt. Governor of the problem the Brooks Tower workers are facing.
Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards could not be reached for a comment on Wednesday.
