Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has announced that his government will put a task force in place to facilitate the approval of work permits for Haitian nationals and citizens from the Dominican Republic residing in Dominica.
He made the announcement while addressing a press briefing on Thursday.
In recent times a number of Haitian nationals living in Dominica have raised concerns over the delay of work permits.
“We are going to put a more robust and transparent process in place to facilitate the approvals of the work permits so that I will put in a task force to review the applications that are outstanding and to quickly address the issue of work permits,” he said. “Not only for the Haitians, but also the citizens from the Dominican Republic who are here as well.”
According to him, the government is not opposed to granting these non-nationals work permits, however, it has to be done in an orderly fashion, with proper documentation, ensuring that the documents are not fraudulent, “and that we don’t place the people of Dominica at risk or a disadvantage when it comes to our engagement with other countries and entities.”
Prime Minister Skerrit made it clear that the Haitian nationals will not be deported if they do not have a work permit and they are working.
“So we will facilitate the work permits and we will put a task force in place hopefully by Monday or Tuesday for the latest…they will go through the applications in a systematic transparent manner and recommend the approval for work permits for the non-nationals or residents in Dominica,” he explained.
He added, “It has to be done orderly and in accordance with the laws of Dominica.”
Our journalism needs to be more circumspect. For reference, it is not acceptable that Haitians were protesting in the front of the Financial CEntre one week before the PM made this statement, but I have not seen or heard ONE NEWS STORY on this on the local media! And this statement is now made and reported on, but no CONTEXT is provided, that this statement follows protests the week before by Haitian nationals concerned about long processing times etc. This story gives absolutely no clue as to what has been happening on the ground.
Secondly, the story also does not call out the PM, who has made such statements before. I will copy one reference to this here, from back in 2020. http://www.q95da.com/news/prime-minister-skerrit-says-dominica-will-regularize-the-issuance-of-work-permits-to-haitian-nationals-but-theyare-very-concerned-about-their-status-treatment
Our local journalists need to do better.
Some Dominicans are hypocrites. There are more Dominicans, including myself, living in countries other than our own. Some are even police commissioners in other peoples’ countries. Dominicas are like Americans, they complain about immigrants taking their jobs but you can’t get them to pick and an apple or harvest a potato. Haitians contribution to the agricultural sector is immeasurable and would be a great loss if they would be deported.
Why make them pay for the work permit it is 1 year and they have not gotten the permit they paid for.
Why have them going up and down and the department has the audacity to say that people should not employ them without work permits? When they should not be used, what do they eat? How do they meet their expenses when they are in a strange land?
Have you people forgotten how our elders worked in the oil field in Aruba, Curacoa, Have we forgotten how our people migrated to the UK on the boats? Have we forgotten how our people migrated to ST Thomas and came back with their digger boots and bell-bottom pants… those Tomians.
Take a survey of Dominicans all over and they are all over in plentiful numbers.
Why thief their money? They are hard-working. God knows everything.
Even renewals take fifty years. Why treat human beings like this?
Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you.
I could shake your toe.
Agents of the government done teeth their money already
What the PM is not saying is that it currently takes 6 to 7 months to process a work permit.. what is being done to address that ridiculously long timespan
Skerrit shut up. Why don’t you ask your Minister Mr. Blackman. He knows a things or two and since you are the one in charge, one has to assume that you are aware what’s going on.
Are there any people in Dominica who want to work besides Haitians and people from the Dominica Republic? Dominica does not have enough jobs to be letting foreigners work on the island, the jobs should be reserved for real Dominicans to keep the money on the island. Is yours truly also going to be running for president of Haiti or the Dominican Republic or making investments there in real estate?
Dominica is one man wealth.
I can understand facilitating the Haitians because we owe them a debt of gratitude, because of what they did to free themselves and us. They put it in their constitution that Haiti is a land for all Black People running from slavery, until European-Americans re-invaded Haiti and stole all their wealth for the French and changed it. European enslavers saw more bloody rebellion coming and deemed it unnecessary and dangerous to keep our people enslaved that way, thus our freedom today. We have to take a stand in solidarity.
You saw how the wanna-be-white people and police from Dominican republic took to the streets hunting down the Haitian People a few yrs back endorsed by their government to massacre Haitians in their streets. Their government has shown no remorse, the least you Skeritt have to do is delay their apps. We cannot keep playing that game like we don’t know nothing. There’s always more than meets the eye.
…and the CM owes them a debt for being sooo active in the last and previous elections. Skerrit, things are catching up with you
You have regurgitated this nonsense before. Let’s move forward and see what the Haitians have done since. They created chaos and poverty.
Can’t just stop history now. It’s not me, it is what you’ve been fed by mainstream media that has brainwashed too many for quite a while now. A little critical thinking is all it takes to move past what they feed us without questioning.
Thank God. However, this is long overdue, and certainly, not because documents are not in order. In addition, not only working permits, but the same should apply for those who have applied for Dominican Citizenship. Some Haitians are presently now waiting for ten (10) years and more. This is not acceptable to Haitians, who are, by the way Members of CARICOM.
CARICOM IS OF THE DEVIL
Why now? That’s will be great, because there is a way to reduce illegal Haitians in DR. Facilitating the Work Permit is the best. The officials government know what to do, but they don’t. Prove yourselves trustworthy!
And how about work permits for the other non nationals? I’m American and been waiting 6 months since I submitted my renewal request…
You need to come up with about $150,00 EC and you will get your permit in short order VIA cashiers check made out to yours truly.
Your country makes us wait 12 years, be grateful.
Mr PM is your brother Ronald a member of your cabinet? I already know Blackmore is national security minister
Thank you! Remember also the many who have a CITIZENSHIP APPLICATION on file for years with no response. Please process these as well. One such person is here since 2007 and is still here contributing to the economy of our island, can’t get an updated permit without a plane ticket and citizenship application on file for donkey years.
These two measures will stem the tide of the illegal migration that the French authorities are complaining about. People living and working in a country, contributing heavily to the economy and can’t possess papers in a timely manner…they move on to where they can…some die in the process.
Why do you want to do this Roosevelt when we do not have enough jobs for our own Dominica born people as testified by your government’s NEP programme. It’s hard to believe that these immigrants’s final destination, their preferred destination is poor Dominica with lower wages and inferior health care, compared with its neighbours. As much as my my empathy lies with those who are worse off than we are, I do find it hard to believe that your motives are purely humanitarian and I must question them.
‘
the work that Haitians are doing in Dominica, there is no one preventing us, Dominicans, from doing it. We don’t want to work in agriculture anymore – many of us don’t even know how to plant. Yet, qualified teachers and university students from Haiti are here in Dominica working on the farms, and working on their own little plots to make extra to help out with things back home.
We Dominicans do the same in NY, Tdot, USVI, Tortola, Guadeloupe, UK, etc. And generations before did it in Panama and Suriname before. Some of our parents and grands came from other islands – Montserrat, Martinique (Mt. Pelee), Antigua. We send home money for our people in the same way, sometimes for family, and sometimes to help worthy causes. So why do we grudge others who do the same in our country as we do outside? We are facing a solution but instead of embracing it we are pushing it away.
So, here we have a damn liar and perhaps a ……. Roosevelt Skerrit who once claimed that Haitians were exporting money which they earn in Dominica back to Haiti.
If in fact he is now going to put a tasks force in place to issue specially work permit to these immigrants, are we to understand that the foreigners were employed on the island without permission to work all along?
And may I asks Roosevelt again in what industry, are the people employed:
I wonder if they all are working in the sale of Dominica passport industry, or some pornographic industry led by some American/Dominica minister of government?
Okay Prime Minister Skerrit, I hear you. But if they are in Dominica and you have allowed them to take up residency in Dominica by not deporting them, which I agree with, then why withhold the work permit?
What are they supposed to do for their survival while residing in Dominica and not granted work permit?
Prime Minister Skerrit do you remember what Dominicans in Guadeloupe used to do when they were illegal in Guadeloupe and not given work permit? Go and ask your mother. This explains what is now happening in Portsmouth and what Dominica is quickly becoming.
He may have a point here; the is the mandatory issuing of work permits brings in a small amount of revenue.
All countries of the world indulge in that practice, especially if the skill of the imported worker are not found in the country. Every country in the Caribbean indulge in that Antigua was the first place I experienced that in 1962.
He is right this time, however I don’t understand this task force thing when such is handled by the immigration department in other islands in the Caribbean!
Antigua abandoned this idea and Skerrit take it up. Lt’s see how far that will reach.
You don’t need a task force. There is a labour’s division constitutionally and legislative established. Let them do their work. But before that can happen, the racketeering you mentioned and we know that is happening based on the arrest of the high rank in labour’s division officials need to be dealt with independently. Folks need to be fired and replaced. Stop spewing hot air out of your living mouth
This guy is a clown. Just look at his face in the pic. A real comic!!
So long Dominicans are hearing of this COMMESS going on re work permit to Santo Domingans and Haitians. In any other country there would have been swift investigations, arrests and jail time served..But not in corrupt Dominica!!!
No wonder Reggie Austrie, a self proclaimed dog, (rot weiler), said that “Dominica has been last in too many things”!!
In any well governed country, government gives priority to the wellbeing of its citizens. This old adage is quite relevant today – “Parson christen his pickney first.”
Thousands of indigenous Dominicans are unemployed or underemployed right now. Jobs are as scarce as a hen’s teeth. Yet foreigners from Haiti and the DR are employed by unscrupulous business people as they are paid well below the already starvation minimum wage.
This attempt by Roosevelt is an attempt to distract fro the growing scandal involving the non-issuance of the work permits that many Haitians have not received after they have paid for them.
Corruption runs amok in this sandal plagued regime.