PNP Administration favours REVOKING status of Offenders

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, November 28, 2022 – The Turks and Caicos Islands Government is fully on board with the revocation of status for legal residents who commit serious crimes in the TCI according to Premier Washington Misick, who was speaking in a town hall meeting on November 21st.

“Yes, we are fully on board with that…”

The Premier was responding to a resident who presented a recommendation in which she said that status holders who obtained their legal status by grant and committed heinous crimes or caused serious harm to society should have their status revoked immediately.

“Criminals such as murderers, repeat sexual predators and those involved in serious organized and gang activity need to be removed from our society,” she read.

Expressing his agreement, Misick explained what it would take to successfully initiate the process across the board.

“Those persons who already have BOTC citizenship there’s a limit to what we can do because British Overseas Territory Citizenship is given by the UK. As to whether there’s a way of still removing those people who are British Overseas Territories Citizens from the territory, we have to get legal advice on how that is done. If one has a status in TCI and is not a BOTC citizen then that is a different matter and all of those measures are being looked into,” he said.

The grafting in of a policy to strip a convicted person of legal status in the Turks and Caicos is part of the government’s crime fighting strategy which would be laid out, said Washington Misick, in greater detail later.

The commitment comes as the Turks and Caicos seeks to legalize its second and third generation citizens who are currently without status.