Fahy Responds To Roban On Immigration, Jobs
Shadow Minister Walter Roban said the OBA Government’s “approach to immigration is a dismal failure and an embarrassment,” while Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy said, “Thankfully Bermuda’s economy is in the hands of a Government that doesn’t view guest workers as the enemy.”
When Government abolished term limits in January of this year they said all work permit holders were required to sign which confirmed their understanding that Bermuda law does not confer permanent residency. The deadline for guest workers to sign the waiver has passed, with approximately 35% of guest workers not having yet signed the document.
Mr Roban said, “The OBA have finally been forced to admit after months of denials, that their approach to immigration is a dismal failure and an embarrassment. The OBA have failed to meet their April deadline for getting our guest workers to sign the declaration document.
“The OBA have failed to protect Bermudians by producing a waiver document of no legal merit. The OBA have failed to create an immigration policy that will protect our people from facing another long term resident issue in the future.
“After the OBA broke their term limits promise, we warned them that in their haste to reward their friends they had failed to protect Bermudians. Today, we have been proven right. This represents not just a failure in the OBA’s immigration policy it yet again displays the incompetence of the Attorney General.
“His record of ineptitude, bad advice and poor judgement speaks for itself. With several experienced lawyers sitting in Cabinet, one would expect that someone would have realized the legal ramifications of this decision and stood up for Bermudians. Yet no one in the OBA questioned the intelligence of this decision.
“The OBA is yet again exposed as out of their depth, out of ideas and out of time to figure out how to protect Bermudian aspiration, opportunity and jobs,” concluded Mr Roban.
In response, Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy said, “Thankfully Bermuda’s economy is in the hands of a Government that doesn’t view guest workers as the enemy.
“Mr. Roban’s statements unfortunately demonstrate a fundamental lack of understanding of how Bermuda’s economy works and he is at variance with even the recent history of his Party in Government which issued more work permits in any time in Bermuda’s history.
“This Government is focused every day on creating opportunities for Bermudians and stimulating an environment in which business feels confident and moves to create jobs. We continue to be encouraged that this Government’s policies are creating renewed interest in Bermuda and repairing the crisis of confidence that existed under the previous Administration.
“More curiously is the attack on the Attorney-General. I would encourage Mr. Roban to speak to his colleagues, some whom actually read the legal opinions upon which the Government based its decision in relation to term limits. One would think that Mr. Roban really wants to see Bermuda fail given the tenor and tone of his remarks.”
Madea goes to jail
(Thankfully Bermuda’s economy is in the hands of a Government that doesn’t view guest workers as the enemy) what he forgot to mention is that the Government views the Bermudian workers as the enemy !!!!
LMAO
After a few weeks of silence we have Roban,DeSilva,Furbert and Brown with statements….Parliament must be getting ready to go back in session…..what about Derrick Burgess and perhaps swizzle gate on the back burner will allow Burt to give his meaningless press conference. Does anyone really care what these people have to say? I mean they did cause all the mess ……
PLP is retarded….just because they didn’t sign a statement (which is basically just a reminder) doesn’t means they can obtain PRC …. Smh
“One would think that Mr. Roban really wants to see Bermuda fail given the tenor and tone of his remarks.”
OF COURSE the BIUplp want Bermuda to fail!!… to fulfill their fantasy of regaining power. And the BIUplp are doing everything they can to criticise and destabilize the OBA Gov’t to make that happen.
We need to quickly get beyond these ‘popularity contests’. The reality is that work permit holders are more concerned than any of us thought about the possibility of being here long enough to get PRC status.
Therefore, the efforts of the OBA are not being readily supported by them. The fact that 35% have not signed also shows that the Dept. of Immigration has little or no teeth. Just imagine if you were in the US or anywhere else and the government told you to come and sign a document that has an impact on your green card!! Surely you would quickly go and sign to make sure you did not lose the privelege of the green card.
On a related note, is it realistic that government will not process 35% of work permits if the holders do not sign the document? I do not think so given how the OBA chastised the PLP for the treatment of permit holders.
The bigger picture is that being in Bermuda for an extended period does increase teh possibility of being able to demand PRC status as has been previously explained, based on the European Convention on Human Rights. The OBA has said this is not the case but if they are correct, how do thye explain the reluctance of 35% of permit holders to sing a simple document??
the plp are EXTINCT!
don’t listen to teeth kissings from ghosts of an evil past 14 years
Try a new brand of water, your present supply must be tainted.
It is not a question of Bermudians or thier political representives being anti-migrant worker or foreigner; it is a question of employment rights for Bermudians in thier own country. This is a reality that minister Fahy and his one term anti-Bermudian OBA government has failed to take into account.It is time to expose the myth being constantly pushed in this country; it is not the migrant worker that Bermuda is beholden to; it is the other way around; it is the migrant/foriegn worker that is beholden to the employment opportunities that Bermuda has provided for them. it is the Bermudian that is the economic back bone in this country; just like the foriegn national is the economic back bone to thier country. It is true that under the PLP government Bermuda’s economy expanded; hence the influx of migrant workers to fill the over flow of jobs. But during those times Bermudians did not face an unemployment crisis and in the wake of the world wide economic slow down; it’s impact was felt in Bermuda. Why do we not hear about a so-called internal factor on Bermuda’s economy now that the OBA is the government? Because that was the big lie told to Bermudians in te run up to the election. Now that lie is being exposed as more and more Bermudians are losing thier jobs dispite the empty promise that the OBA government made before the election that it will create two thousand jobs for Bermudians. Now with this current economic situation; Bermudians demand full employment rights in thier own country.
so tell me why will they not sign. do they think they will get to stay here forever. has to be a reason
Who stated that permit holders ‘won’t sign’ this document? I’m on a permit and I’ve not even seen it let alone made a choice on whether to sign.
If he were not an MP Roban would not be worth responding to. He is no better than an internet troll seeking attention.
Mr. Roban what have u every did for Bermuda!? Except sign land away 2 ya mate! Go stick your head in the rocks! Um tired of these PLP ministers, they F***** us, screwed us and spit us the F*** out! U are the PROBLEM! Didn’t the PLP hire more foreign works then any other government in our HISTORY!? And your government (PLP) is for Bermudians! LMAO!!!
Ever think the document isn’t signed because their employer is too busy trying to stay in business that they haven’t had time to organize it? Once renewals go in I am sure that compliance figure will rapidly escalate to 90% plus. And to reiterate an often lamented fact by Bermudian employers, if we got the work ethic and work standard and work willingness out of all Bermudians, we wouldn’t need to go searching for blue collar workers overseas in the first place.
I knew a salt of the earth Bermudian who owned a firm that did the majority of its work at night. This Bermudian business owner was on the job every night in the wee hours. He would ask potential job applicants to come in for an interview at 1:00am at night, which was often the starting time of a shift, or close to a finishing time. Those that came on time and ready to interview were often hired on the spot. Sadly they were also few and far between, because applicants would not come in at that time as it was “too late”. Or they would promise to come but never would show up. Until we as a country are willing (all of us) are willing to step up and do work that everyone else in the world does regularly (first world counties I am meaning as well), then I refuse to listen to bollocks as written by Mr. Williams. We refuse to face the fact that for many Bermudians, an unwillingness to simply d othe job like everyone else in the world is required to do is often the ONLY thinkg standing in the way of Bermudians being employed. The job sets the standards and parameters of employment, not the employee.
c’mon man,, if your child told you that he didnt do his homework because he was too busy carrying out chores, would you accept that?? lets be for real man,, if we are going to address problems, stop with the television dreams, face life head on,, that was a sorrrry exchse.
As usual Mr. Fahy did not answer to any of the issues brought up by Mr. Roban. All he gave us was some old campaign rhetoric.
You know I have to agree with you and after reading this article I am just shaking my head, because of the ignorance that these two leaders have and we the public must endure such stupidity.
Mr. Roban P.L.P had the power to do what should have been done and did not do it and O.B.A has the power to do more on behalf of the unemployed in Bermuda, and they refuse to do for the unemployed.
So in my view you have two donkeys kicking up a storm and all you can smell from both is their disposals that are coming out of their rear.
@Johnny you are correct that he did not answer any of the questions. There was a deadline that was missed and there is indeed no legal merit in the document and it was Mr Fahy himself who pointed out that it is simply a reminder to people not to expect citizenship!
He then makes some vague statement about getting a legal opinion from a QC as if this is proof of legality. It is not as this is a policy document based on the present procedures and there is currently No law that references it!
Bermuda deserves better! We voted for it and we are not getting it!
Ok not particularly related to this thread but I had to share this story from the UK Guardian newspaper about what happens in Greece (not known for high ethical standards in government) when a government official accepts a lift on a private jet from a third party counter-party with the government:
“Greece dismissed the chairman of its privatisation agency on Sunday after a newspaper reported that he travelled on the private plane of a businessman who had bought a state company.
The Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, asked for Stavridis’s resignation on Sunday, said the former’s department in a brief statement. The official said the dismissal followed a report that Stavridis travelled last week on the private plane of Dimitris Melissanidis, a shipowner and major shareholder of a Greek-Czech consortium which in May agreed to buy a 33% stake in state gambling firm OPAP. Stavridis was not immediately available for comment.
According to a newspaper report, he admitted he used the plane to travel to his holiday home. “Melissanidis, who was travelling to France, offered to take me with him to accommodate me,” he was quoted as saying by the Proto Thema newspaper.
Stavridis took the flight immediately after the signing of an agreement to finalise the €652m OPAP deal, it said.
The finance ministry official confirmed the OPAP deal would not be affected and the Stavridis’s resignation was for “ethical reasons”.”
Dear Honorable Minister Roban,
Please consider asking Minister Fahey nicely to help you get a job back in compliance again so you have something meaningful to do during your now long days without your permanent secretary and ministry staff
happy labor day!
My employer issued the statement for signature and collected it for return to the Government. My husband’s employer contacted immigration to request the statement as his employees had not signed it to be told that when the work permits come up for renewal the statement can be sent in at the same time – regardless of when these work permits are up for renewal and regardless of the deadline set by the Government.
The reality is that the PLP nomenclature would rather destroy Bermuda for their own petty personal agendas and unearned, undeserved lifestyles than let a democratically elected government succeed – a bunch of spoiled brats still pouting.
You know it always amazes me how politicians have all the answers when they are NOT in power. After more than one term at the helm during which few can claim to have been experts based on the state in which our country finds itself after the past administration; I would suggest the honorable shadow ministers stand back and let the current government have its day at the wheel. There are no magic bullets or magic wands. Hard and unpopular decisions are going to have to be made to get this island back on track. Too many years of appeasing the unreasonable has cost us dearly! We live and work in the REAL world people; Bermuda’s “another world” exists only in people’s heads!