KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has urged undocumented Africans, particularly Nigerians, residing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to regularize their standing, saying that they’re a necessary useful resource to the Caribbean Group (CARICOM) nation.
Gonsalves, who visited Nigeria earlier this month, stated an estimated 350-500 Nigerians reside right here and {that a} vital variety of them got here in 2017 from All Saints College in Dominica following the devastation brought on by Hurricane Maria.
“They got here right here, 100 and one thing of them, and others got here as college students to that college and the American College of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“What I perceive is that when there was a change of presidency in Nigeria, the federal government altered its funding coverage for medical college students abroad,” stated Gonsalves, who had delivered the convocation lecture at a personal college in Lagos earlier this month.
“So, a few of these college students had been left stranded. Some [are] doing work of 1 sort or one other; some modified their programs. I do know a few them are doing nursing proper now relatively than drugs; some have gone into music; some have expertise as craftsmen and joiners and carpenters and the like,” he stated.
“And plenty of of them are what chances are you’ll name undocumented; that’s to say, they don’t have any standing now formalized apart from their scholar standing, and they’re not college students.
“And I’m saying to them, I’ve stated it to them, and I’m saying once more, please come and regularise your self. Get residence, get work permits. Regularise your self.”
Gonsalves stated that the previous college students who’ve been right here for over seven years can apply to turn into residents.
“Briefly, now we have a number of shiny, younger Nigerians. We haven’t paid for his or her main training, we haven’t paid for his or her secondary training, we haven’t paid something for his or her tertiary training. They’re a useful resource. They’re an essential useful resource,” he stated, noting that some Nigerians have married Vincentian girls and acquired citizenship.
“Some, like different individuals, have migrated since they married their companions. Some are right here. In different phrases, it’s a combined group.
“And, my commentary is that this: the nation’s working folks and peasantry have supplied our Nigerian brothers and sisters with great solidarity. I do know of many, many circumstances. We should not in any approach in any respect discriminate or maintain something in opposition to younger, law-abiding folks.
“They could be undocumented however law-abiding within the sense that they don’t seem to be concerned in any legal exercise,” stated Gonsalves, the Minister of Nationwide Safety.
He stated that if any of the undocumented Africans become involved in legal exercise, “the related establishments of the state, the police, the court docket will cope with that.
“And evening will observe day in these circumstances in that the court docket would deal with them accordingly in each materials explicit. The purpose is that this: I’m encouraging them to regularise themselves.
“For these individuals who might have any bias — and the quantity may have a bias in opposition to them as a result of they’re Nigerians is a quantity which is declining in our society as a result of a few of these individuals — in the event that they had been Individuals or Canadians or Europeans, British, as an illustration, or French, might not have been so unfavorable in the direction of them. However that could be a minority in our nation, and it’s a part of my obligation to talk truthfully in the direction of these explicit info and circumstances,” Gonsalves added.
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