Up Front
Immigration Irritation
Fear and arbitrarypower by officers - in addition to insecurity of tenure createinstability
The Government of the day was electedon their repeated campaign promises of settling the myriad ofImmigration issues facing the country today, a disappointing displayof transparency and lack of accountability in reducing the costof living - which are all now playing havoc with people's livesand the local economy, now at the lowest point anyone can recallin the modern history of the Cayman Islands
Reports flowing across the land from justabout every quarter, have been nothing more than gloom for a tremendousamount of businesses large and small and individualswho are suffering from the lack of confidence in today's sad stateof affairs, which are compounding already imposed wounds thatare beginning to appear and seems hopeless of recovering.
Cayman Net News,by the evidence of its inconsistency of publishing schedule, hasitself fallen prey to similar woes which have beset our community,because of a depleted cash flow and staff resource, because ofattrition, their insecurity of the publication's continuity -as well as instances of poaching.
As difficult as it has been, the publisherand his limited staff of four down from 11, have managedto put out a newspaper once a week up to three weeks ago. However,we were forced to skip an edition last week and have struggledto put out this issue. We have done so because we have ralliedagainst the naysayers against the breath of fresh air we havebrought to local media because of our efforts.
We will rally on to preserve our faithfulreaders and advertisers who have stood up gallantly to supportour well read and respected newspaper.
Several of the business owners in the communitywe are in contact with on a daily basis are quite concerned abouttheir future. And they have all requested anonymity for this report,expressing fear that they will be victimized by Immigration ifthey will speak out in any way, particularly in connection withthe state of the country's economy. One of these who arrived inthe Cayman Islands at the age of two, now nearing fifty has beengranted a temporary work permit to operate his business.
Cayman Net News,as well as other businesses, have also been subjected to victimizationin the past and present by Immigration decisions - both the Administrativeand Appointed Board bodies of this entity - based strictly onthe perception of officers. In a number of cases they have beenwrong in denying us permits, relying on their inflexibility oftheir own perceptions rather than fact. We were sent indirectwarnings that we should cut our rhetoric by the previous GovernmentAdministration. There was also the short-lived attempt to imposeduty on our newspaper, which is printed overseas.
"We did not bend then and we do notintend to do so now," says Mr. Desmond Seales, MBE, publisherand Editor in Chief of Cayman Net News. "What we willdo is to continue bringing to the attention of the public at large,all matters which should be presented for public discussion andparticipation."
What continues to be a vexing problem, isthat these very officers blame the present system which allowsthem to make people's lives miserable, on the dictates of archaicand inconsiderate directives of past Executive Council membersand in-attention by the present day members, who in turn arguethat a succession of past Governments are responsible for thepresent Immigration fiasco.
While there are many situations that maywarrant a display of Immigration's inflexibility, it certainlydoes not require them applying a broad brush to the entities thatare doing everything possible to educate the problems broughton by the present economic slowdown.
While trying to confirm a report that thereis a proliferation of one-way airline tickets being purchased,Cayman Net News has learnt that there is a significantincrease in outbound freight and it is not because of aninundation of Rum Cakes. As a matter of fact, it has been learntthat storage and moving companies are so impacted they are runningout of space.
The Cayman Islands has been able to overcomemany bouts of economic downturns. The timing of this period isbeing monitored very carefully by present investors.
Says one frustrated business owner: "Theonly hope for recovery and sustainability of the Cayman Islandsfor the future, is for Government Administrators or decision makers,to come to the reality that even though an average of 150 WorkPermits are issued weekly, there seems to be an exodus a significantnumber of disenchanted residents."