Immigration Minister David Burch was silent yesterday on the identity of five captains of industry he accuses of sounding a "death knell" on term limits in international business.

The Senator this week criticised the business community for "hypocrisy" in their stance on work permit term limits. "They say one thing to my face and say another thing publicly," he told the media on Tuesday.

He said he had even been told "the vast majority of people don't have a problem" with the current six-year guest worker term limits.

However, he recently tabled a change of policy to Cabinet to extend permits for key workers to ten years. Although this was approved, he told the press: "I'm not issuing any."

He said due to conflicting messages from the business community he was "not overly inclined to push to get a policy in place to issue them".

"Not one person in this Country will stand up and be honest on term limits," he said.

"We have five people who continue to beat away that term limits is the death knell [of international business] and they stir it up and put it in the media."

The Minister would not disclose the identity of the "five people" yesterday. A Government spokeswoman said: "The Minister's stance has not changed from yesterday and therefore he has no further comment to make at this time."

In the past, Sen. Burch has criticised Alex DeCouto, president of the Construction Association of Bermuda, and Martin Law, executive director of the Bermuda Employers' Council, for "trying to demonise" term limits.

In March 2009, the Minister said he was "disappointed" at Mr. DeCouto and Mr. Law's remarks in an article in 'The Bottom Line' magazine. Mr. Law was unavailable for comment yesterday.

However Mr. DeCouto, now Labour and Immigration spokesman for the Bermuda Democratic Alliance (BDA), said: "Our initial reaction to the news that Government will introduce a ten-year work permit is that it will provide increased certainty for the business community, which is welcome during these uncertain times. Our inquiries have confirmed as much.

"However, the news that the Minister has no intention of issuing any is perplexing to say the least. The term 'mixed message' would be an understatement. Why bother raising hopes in the business community only to dash them?

"We will be watching closely to see how this policy evolves."

David Ezekiel, president of the Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC), said: "I can only clarify that ABIC has been consistent in its message, both publicly and in private meetings without fear of contradiction."

Stephen Todd, Bermuda Chamber of Commerce president, said: "I'm a little bit surprised the Minister would use a broad-based statement rather than being specific. I have no idea who he is referring to.

"I would have hoped he would have received consistent feedback as this is the case with our Chamber membership. We've been very consistent from our membership in that we've been lobbying for some time that the Minister and Cabinet reconsider the six-year term limits.

"Especially as it impacts not just on the international sector but also the commercial divisions and areas such as our restaurants and retail sector. There are challenges in recruiting local applicants to fill those key positions so we are happy to see changes."

Mr. Todd added he would be attending next Thursday's meeting for Bermudians in international business to discuss expatriate term limits with Minister Burch. "This is an area of significant importance to the wider business community and I'm hopeful as many interested parties as possible will view it as an opportunity to have an open and frank discussion with the Minister."

On Tuesday however, Sen. Burch reiterated his stance that Shadow Immigration Minister Michael Dunkley was not welcome. He went on to describe Sen. Dunkley as "rude".

The Shadow Minister said yesterday: "He's entitled to his opinion but I will let the people of Bermuda judge my character and how I act.

"Immigration and work permits is always a touchy issue and I don't want to escalate that by having a personal back-and-forth between myself and the Minister. It doesn't do the situation any good. I want to give support to the Minister where possible but will voice a differing opinion where we think it's necessary to do so. With work permits and the term-limit e-mail, I stated what our concern was in a respectful way.

"I will still attend the meeting because if I'm supposed to be Shadow Minister of Immigration I need to be able to listen to people's opinions. I don't see any reason why the Minister would be opposed to having me in attendance."