Independent MP Trevor Moniz is urging the party which ousted him from its ranks early this year to reconsider its stance on supporting new rights for the Island's long-term residents.

Government tabled the Immigration and Protection Amendment Act 2002 on Friday, which paves the way for some 400 long-term residents (LTRs) to receive Bermudian Status and will allow hundreds more to obtain Permanent Residents Certificates allowing them to work without work permits and to buy property.

“We at the Coalition (for Long-Term Residents) are pleased with the bill as it stands,” Mr. Moniz said. “It doesn't go as far as we would like in several respects but it is nonetheless, a good thing.”

And, he urged his former UBP colleagues to support the bill although the party voted against its associated White Paper following a 12-hour Parliamentary debate last August.

“I believe people felt the White Paper did not go far enough,” Mr. Moniz said of the Opposition's approach to last year's vote which Government won 18-12.

Mr. Moniz did not attend the vote, but, his claims that no one in the UBP fully supported the drive for increased rights for LTRs exacerbated tensions with his former party, from which he had been suspended since October 1999.

In January of this year, the UBP yanked the popular Smith's South MP's party credentials. Yesterday, Opposition leader Dr. Grant Gibbons said the UBP is not yet ready to take a position on the bill.

“It was only tabled on Friday,” Dr. Gibbons said, adding the party's caucus might discuss the bill at its weekly meeting scheduled for last night. “But it probably won't be debated (in the House) for two weeks.”

Dr. Gibbons said the party did feel last year's White Paper did not go far enough. He added: “We'll need to fully discuss it and look at it carefully before we can take a position, so I'd like to reserve judgment.”

The bill offers extended rights to those who have lived on the Island over 20 years or have Bermudian siblings or children, provided that they satisfy a number of conditions.

Mr. Moniz told said he had already received a number of calls from people expressing concerns about its wording, however.

In particular, Mr. Moniz said many worried that a pre-condition for Bermudian status which states the individual must be a Commonwealth citizen, which would exclude those of Portuguese or American descent.

People from the Azores make up over a quarter of those expected to qualify for status under the new bill.

Their numbers are exceeded only by those from the United Kingdom which make up 38 percent of those expected to qualify for status or permanent residency.

Americans make up seven percent of those expected to qualify for additional immigration rights.

But Mr. Moniz said if a non-Commonwealth citizen satisfies all the criteria for status or permanent residency, the normal course of action would then be for that person to be “naturalised” as a Commonwealth citizen.

A problem might only arise due to a gap between Bermuda's requirement that the individual be “ordinarily resident” on the Island versus the Commonwealth requirement that the individual maintain a “physical presence” in a Commonwealth jurisdiction for five years.

This can avoided, however, by a small amendment to the bill stating, where Bermuda is prepared to grant status, the individual can “be deemed to be a Commonwealth citizen”, Mr. Moniz said.

The Royal Gazette understands that the British government has said it would support such a provision which is already on the books for non-British children of Bermudian mothers.

And Mr. Moniz has written to Labour and Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister suggesting the amendment.

Other concerns raised with regard to the bill relate a provision for status which states the individual should have been on the Parliamentary register in 1976.

As only Commonwealth citizens could be on the register at that time, Mr. Moniz suggested “this requirement unfairly discriminates against Americans and the Portuguese”.

He also said that a provision for a permanent resident certificate which states the individual must be at least 40 years of age was “arbitrary” and should be removed while a provision allowing those granted certificates to eventually qualify for status should have been included.

Nevertheless, Mr. Moniz said he hopes the bill will receive wide support when debated.