PHILIPSBURG: --- The Ministers of Justices of St. Maarten, Aruba, Curacao and the Netherlands signed an indefinite Memorandum of Understanding on Monday to work on combatting human smuggling/trafficing within the countries.
The Minsters namely Minister Navarro from Curacao, Minister Dowers from Aruba and Minister Van der Steur of the Netherlands joined St. Maarten Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson over the weekend where they discussed matters relating to justice. The four day meeting ended on Monday where the Ministers signed the agreement they reached. One on the strengthening of the justice chains in each country, and the combatting of human trafficking/smuggling.
St. Maarten’s Minister of Justice Dennis Richardson told reporters they managed reach agreements on all eleven points that were on the agenda. He described the meeting as being successful, he gave credit to the new Minister of Justice of the Netherlands Minister Van der Steur who fully participated in the meetings. Minister Richardson said the most important point for him is the fact they have reached an agreement on the strengthening of the justice chain on the three countries namely St. Maarten, Curacao and Aruba. Minister Richardson further stated that they agreed on several other things including the budget, and the court for law and order will visit the prisons.
Asked by SMN News if the strengthening of the justice chain would be done based on the police law where each country will have one police force and not separate justice entities. Minister Richardson said that there will be one police force and that the assistance will be given to the police force, the RST will have to work along with KPSM, while the office of Attorney General and Prosecutor Office will be strengthened. Also asked if St. Maarten will regain access to the Border Management System (BMS) and Foreign Management System (FMS) since they signed an agreement to combat human trafficking and smuggling Minister Richardson said St. Maarten already have limited access to the system. Minister Richardson said that St. Maarten is working on its own information system on own system the Justice Immigration System (JIS) which should be completed by August 2015.
SMN News understands that St. Maarten is connected to the BES structure and not the entire structure that will give access to all information.
Another point discussed during the meetings is the evaluation of the Kingdom laws which is expected to take place sometime this year. The consensus they agreed upon was to reach agreements after the evaluation, especially establishing the route the countries would like to take, the Ministers also agreed to leave room for the opinion of others. Minister Richardson said the intention of the Ministers are to reach agreements before presenting the positions they have each taken to the various parliaments. Minister Richardson said as soon as the results of the evaluation is known Parliament will get that along with the general public.
Minister Van der Steur described St. Maarten as being very hospitable while the people he said are friendly, he gave lots of credit to Governor Eugene Holiday who gave him a two-hour tour of the island on Sunday. Minister Van der Steur said it is regretful that he has to leave the island so quickly because he would have like to stay a bit longer. Minister Van der Steur said he made specific call to the Minister of Justice of Curacao to try and control the influx and transhipment of drugs to the other countries especially to the continent.
