Philipsburg:--- Close to ten businesses who signed for persons who are not working for their company will soon face prosecution announced Minister of Justice Roland Duncan on Wednesday.Minister Duncan said the inter-departmental committee that was installed with the consent of Council of Ministers to vet the 2,588 Brooks Towers Applications submitted their report on August 17th. Based on the findings by the committee, some 1,610 persons who applied for a Brooks Tower Permit (BTA) will be denied since there are indications that certain companies committed fraud when they signed for the applicants. Minister Duncan said they also know that these companies charged monies for the bogus job contracts and letters.
Minister Duncan said it appears as though the real employers for the applicants who requested a BTA permit did not want to sign for their workers so the immigrants then sought out other companies who were willing to sign for them by providing bogus job contracts and letters. However, when the committee vetted the dossiers they realized that some of the employers are operating out of a small office and they have not filed any taxes for the persons they signed for, as such these persons will not be considered for a BTA permit.
The Minister said 207 dossiers falling under category one are clean and ready for processing while there are others that are incomplete. These permits the Minister said could be ready as early as September 15th.
Minister Duncan said the biggest problem he is confronted with falls under category two and three where there is a large number of bogus employers.
The Minister said the committee submitted three types of advice to his Ministry, one which is to grant the permits, another to reject the permits while the third advice is for the applications to be held.
Minister Duncan said the committee looked at three categories which are category one for people who were on St. Maarten before the year 2001, category two were for immigrants who arrived on St. Maarten between 2002 and 2005 while the third category were for persons who arrived on St. Maarten after December 31 2005.
Minister Duncan said the committee found that 447 of the 2, 588 dossiers were already dealt with before the launching of the criminal investigation which started in January 2011. He said about 900 applications will be processed but the fraudulent ones will be handed over to the prosecutor's office so they can be dealt with according to the law.
The Minister said he will be discussing with the Minister of Labor where he intends to ask the Labor Ministry to give the legitimate employers one last chance to come clean and deal with government for their workers.
The Minister also called on the SHTA, the IMA, the Bankers Association, Chamber of Commerce and all other associations that represent employers to encourage the employers they represent to come clean and sign for their workers. Minister Duncan said he is totally against persons including government who would engage in hiring people illegally. Minister Duncan said he took note of what the SHTA had to say about the BTA applications but they should not push the blame on government. He said he is giving the SHTA a good opportunity to encourage their membership to come clean since they know the employers that have people working for them illegally. He said the workers tried to cover themselves by trying to legalize their status. "Right now we know who the people are, we know the bogus employers who charged people for the job letters and contracts. Besides that, there is a fine of Naf.100, 000.00 which will be implemented," Minister Duncan said.
Minister Duncan said the Simpson Bay prison facility is almost completed and very shortly the immigration department will begin raiding again.
Minister Duncan said government mainly his Ministry recognizes that there are 1,610 persons that will be added to the amount of illegal people living on St. Maarten.