Jacinto Mock Many countries would love their people arriving on Sint Maarten to easily get a Dutch passport. I can understand the frustration by Mr. Leopold James. Our economy is not growing fast enough and therefore that many Dutch passport could burden the system. A Dutch passport is extra weight when new citizens are assertively demanding for more and better services. We now will have to respect their rights as well. But what can that do to the cultural and ethnic make up of our people? A Dutch passport can facilitate traveling, however, its not a guaranteed meal ticket. As I understood, many inhabitants of the former Netherlands Antilles have settled down in the Netherlands, but experience hardship in other places like the United States and Canada where strict immigration and labor laws are enforced. Our journals are filled with stories of Antilleans working for meager salaries and being too shame to even tell their parents at home. A close friend of mines claim that some anti-independent people whom are supported and backed by the Dutch tried to instill fear about a Sint Maarten passport not being as readily accepted as a Dutch passport. That is not true. Those whom were born on Sint Maarten before a certain date and those whom have a Dutch passport before any accepted or negotiated date before and after independence will still remain a Dutch passport. The ones that receive a Sint Maarten passport will or may have to get a visa, but that is a fact and reality of life. IT ALL DEPENDS WHAT IS NEGOTIATED. I ASK THAT ANYONE BORN UP TO 50 YEARS AFTER INDEPENDENCE AND IN POSSESION OF A SINT MAARTEN PASSPORT TO HAVE THE SAME TRAVELING AND VISAS PRIVILEGES AS THOSE HOLDING A DUTCH PASSPORT AT THE MOMENT OF INDEPENDENCE. NOW YOU WILL UNDERSTAND WHY SOCIAL REFORM PARTY HAS BEEN STUDYING OUR OWN IMMIGRATION TREATIES.
Posted on: Thu, 24 Oct 2013 01:27:01 +0000
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