Philipsburg:--- A large group of police and immigration officers left their jobs on Tuesday afternoon and marched over to the Government Administration Building with their union representatives demanding to meet with the Prime Minister of St. Maarten. However, the Prime Minister is off island and the officers and union representatives had to meet with the Deputy Prime Minister and current leader of Government Theodore Heyliger. The police and immigration officers along with the unions will be meeting with the Minister of Justice on Wednesday morning where the Minister is expected to provide the answers the unions are looking for.At the Government Administration Building, Deputy Prime Minister Theodore Heyliger and Member of Parliament Johan Janchi Leonard met with the officers. WICSU Union representatives Derie Leonard and NAPB representative Officer Josepha told reporters that Minister of Justice Roland Duncan has decided to make changes to the Police Organization without consulting the stakeholders. One of those changes which the police is troubled about is the separation of Border Control (Immigration) from the police organization. The NAPB representative said they are not against change but the Minister of Justice must inform the union about the changes he intends to make and the implications this would have on police and immigration officers.
The officers he said are now concerned about their job security since these changes that are being made by the Minister of Justice are against the agreements St. Maarten made with the Netherlands prior to the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles on October 10th 2010. Both Leonard and Josepha said they want to know if their jobs are secured. Leonard said the union met with the Justice Minister on several occasions but they are not receiving positive answers from the Minister. Leonard said the Minister made a drastic decision to remove immigration from police even though St. Maarten has agreements that were signed which states that the justice chain has to remain as is.
NAPB member Officer Josepha also confirmed that the changes that are being made by the Minister are against the advice given by the Chief Commissioner of Police Peter de Witte and the Marechausse Mr. O. van Putten who said that border control (Airport, Harbour and Coast Line) should remain under the police organization and not under immigration since it's a police task while immigration is an administrative process.
The top cops further explained in their advice that Border Control helps to control criminality and terrorism. The only exception is when Border Control falls under a Kingdom Task which is when dealing with foreign territories. They further advised that Border Control does not have anything to do with admission and expulsion and as such the job must be conducted by police officers. The police heads also believe that keeping Border Control under the Police would be better when it comes to information sharing since the police and border control is under the same umbrella.
According to sources, the Minister has decided to split the police from immigration and he will appoint Inspector Geronimo Juliet as head of immigration as of October 1 2011. NAPB member Josepha said they also heard the same rumor and that was the reason they marched over to the Government Administration Building to demand answers.
Click here to see photos of the Police Walkout.
