By Lynne Woolridge

Once again, Christopher Famous has published an opinion about immigration matters which demonstrates that either he has very little understanding of what he is talking about or he is one of those people who hope that if they repeat an inaccuracy often enough, it will eventually become accepted as true.

The aim of his article in The Royal Gazette on Friday was to somehow show that the Minister of Home Affairs, Sen Michael Fahy, is trying to destroy the culture of Bermuda by the steps he has taken to reform our immigration laws.

In order to do that, Mr Famous repeats so many untruths and inaccurate claims that it is obvious that he doesn’t have any desire to get at the truth, but simply wants to smear the Minister and the Government in any way that will give him and the party he supports a political advantage.

Here are some examples.

Mr Famous is trying to shore up the Progressive Labour Party argument that it is the OBA government’s fault that holders of Permanent Residence Certificates are able to apply for and get Bermuda Status.

That is not only wrong, it is an allegation that has been corrected so many times that it now qualifies as a simple lie.

The truth is that it was the PLP government that conceived and passed the amendment to the Immigration Act that created Permanent Residence Certificate holders.

The PLP created the legal framework that allows PRC-holders to apply for status, and even if we rescinded that framework tomorrow, people who qualified for status under its provisions would still be entitled to status. The problem having been created, Bermuda is stuck with it. It cannot be undone, or waved away because it has become inconvenient. That is the way the law works.

Among Mr Famous’s other inaccuracies is this one: he suggests that there are many thousands of people who, because the Government stopped the use of term limits, will now be eligible for status due to naturalisation.

“Without term limits,” he says in his article, “the OBA has set the stage for 6,782 work permit holders to become long-term residents. Persons who have resided in Bermuda for five years or more, are eligible to apply for UK naturalisation.”

That is just nonsense. The fact is that a work permit holder cannot apply for naturalisation. Only someone who has been free of immigration control for five years or more can apply to be naturalised. Term limits apply only to people who have work permits, so term limits have absolutely nothing to do with it. Work permit holders are not considered free of immigration control.

He speaks of legal advice that has been given to this Government as if it has been the basis of many things that have been done to reform immigration law when in fact, the advice was given to the previous government and simply acted upon by this government.

He asks why the OBA had all work permit holders sign “waiver declarations; waivers that probably have no legal validity?”

It’s not a waiver. It’s simply a declaration that those who sign have no expectation of permanent residence conferred upon them by their work permits. Again, this document was created, based on advice that was given to the previous government.

What he means by “no legal validity” isn’t clear. Any court adjudicating some kind of legal action would almost certainly take into account a signed declaration that the plaintiff didn’t expect to get what he is suing for.

He asks why the OBA is claiming that blocking status for long-term residents would be a human rights violation. Any right-minded person will understand that the government cannot create a legal framework for people to obtain status, and then refuse to grant it to those who qualify. How would Mr Famous feel if a 16-year-old friend of his, let’s say, applied for a driver’s licence and was refused on the grounds that the government felt there were too many 16-year-olds with driver’s licences? That would be ludicrous, and the point is that the principle is the same for Permanent Resident Certificate holders and status.

It would seem that if the PLP had its way, we would be callously throwing foreigners out on the flimsiest of grounds — men and women who have spent their lives working for Bermuda, even children who were born here and have no family or other ties outside Bermuda. They are all apparently in the PLP’s sights.

We invite Mr Famous to have a look at his own members of Parliament and find out where they were born, or their parents were born. He will find that throwing stones at glass houses is dangerous.

Bermuda sets the bar very high already for immigrants. Those who make it through our difficult system would be a credit to any country in the world. People like that cannot be treated as if they were illegal refugees without human rights.

The One Bermuda Alliance feels that Mr Famous, and anyone else who wants to understand these matters properly, should read the Chief Justice’s ruling on the path to status for Permanent Resident Certificate holders, which can be found at http://www.gov.bm/portal/server.pt/gateway/PTARGS_0_2_10809_204_226633_43/http%3B/ptpublisher.gov.bm%3B7087/publishedcontent/publish/non_ministerial/judiciary/judgments_2014/appeal_judgment_minister_for_home_affairs_v__carne_and_correia_finalrev.pdf.

Senator Lynne Woolridge is chairwoman of the One Bermuda Alliance