The call for Citizenship Commission to be disbanded; Arguments erupt but do Complainants have a point?

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, February 7, 2023 – Former Chief Minister Oswald Skippings has responded to the news that a group of PRC holders are bringing a class action lawsuit against the Immigration Department after being denied TCI citizen status.

In an open letter, Skippings who is himself a part of the Commission which makes the decisions about granting Turks and Caicos citizenship described what he called a ‘lack of appreciation’ by some expats for the multiple levels of status they are allowed to hold including Permanent Residency Certificates and Turks and Caicos passports.

The letter was in response to a story carried by the TCI Sun which revealed the lawsuit was brought because plaintiffs felt they were not given sufficient reasons behind why they were denied and the extensive waiting period which, for some,  spanned years. The suit aims to

• Overturn the decision not to grant them status
• Quash the appointments of the commission members and;
•  Mandate that a new commission reconsiders their application.

But weeks since news of the lawsuit broke, residents are now seeing the results of applications filed as far back as 2016.  In affidavits to the lawsuit publicized by the TCI Sun, the appellants listed the incredibly long waiting time for some of them as one of the driving forces behind the legal action.

“After more than six years of considering the applications, no warning was given of the impending unfavourable decision, far less an opportunity to the applicants to address the commission’s concerns with the applications. That cannot be a procedurally fair way of conducting the Islander Status application process,” they said.

But the former chief minister disagrees.  Oswald Skippings fiercely condemns the lawsuit in his own letter.

“Imagine the temerity and the effrontery to attack governments and citizens responsible for the issuance of Islander Status that would empower them not only to further erode our franchise, but to take it totally out of our hands so that we would not only be disempowered economically, socially and industrially, but we will no longer have the voting power to determine who our government is. In other words, not being able to determine who would represent our best interest in the House of Assembly and secure our destiny in our native land.” He said.

Skippings himself is mentioned by name in the affidavits attached to the lawsuit according to The Sun where the plaintiffs cite a newspaper article “expressing passionate views about those who he perceived as foreigners” and question his ability to be objective. Along with the former Chief Minister, committee chairman Benson Harvey is also mentioned for similar reasons.

Just 10 days after the news of the lawsuit broke the Government released an advisory that “formal responses for all Turks and Caicos Islander Status applicants for the years 2016 to 2021 are ready for collection.”

It took between three and seven years for some 50 status applications to receive a formal response; this is indicative of the snail’s-pace system that continues to endure under successive governments.

It’s not just status applications, police records, work permits and more; receiving documentation in The Turks and Caicos is a long and frustrating process that has allowed criminal enterprises to thrive due to under the table deals which fast track application processes, which arguably start out as honest pursuits.  Faced with the sluggish pace of the public sector, which falls under the remit of the Governor’s Office, fake documents, elaborate scams, exploitation and fraud have not only flourished, but have forced government offices to completely shut down.

And the row about the pathway to citizenship and who are the guardians of the process erupts as the Turks and Caicos Islands struggles with indigenous population growth.

The government recently revealed that the Turks and Caicos population growth rate is woefully inadequate and at an unsustainable low; Arlington Musgrove, Minister of immigration and Border Security had said the Turks and Caicos Islander is fast approaching extinction.

Still, for Oswald Skippings and others who share his view, the decision to sue the Commission and the Department of Immigration by expats is seen as “arrogant” and he reminds in his letter, that the grant of citizenship is optional; a privilege and not a right.

“…did you notice the word ‘MAY and not SHALL’ when it refers to the granting of Islander Status?  So be aware that you may qualify for consideration only, and not for any legal entitlement.”