First revealed on a BahamasB2B.com Message board post over a year ago, Immigration Minister Vincent Peet has finally confirmed that Western Air is in violation of immigration laws.
The Minister hit out at the carrier during a press conference held Thursday at his Hawkins Hill office in downtown Nassau.
Reading from a prepared text, Minister Peet alleged that Western had employed six foreign pilots before going through the proper immigrations channels. Those six pilots were given until 5 p.m. yesterday to leave the country by the Immigration Department.
“The fact is that the proprietors of Western Air are in clear and unmistakable breach of the immigration rules and they are being dealt with accordingly – nothing more and nothing less.”
The original message board post on Bahamas B2B also revealed information regarding a larger-scale human smuggling ring being operated from Andros.
Mr Peet, who is also the Member of Parliament of North Andros and the Berry Islands, said he did everything possible to assist Western Air as a business. “The record in this regard is clear. It is therefore most unfortunate that they should now see fit to conveniently make charges of being victimised, when nothing could be further from the truth.”
He stressed that, “The Department of Immigration must do its job, no matter whether it is a company doing business in my constituency or anywhere else in the Bahamas.”
He further made it clear that “work permits must be applied for before the individuals concerned enter The Bahamas. It is also widely know that there are many qualified Bahamian pilots available for training on a wide range of aircraft.”
Meanwhile, the director of Immigration, Vernon Burrows, spoke to the facts of the case, outlining what exactly Western Air was being accused of.
According to Mr Burrows, “Western Air flew the people in, put them to work and then made an application.” He highlighted that, “the six persons in question never had work permits. What would have triggered the decision is that some of them were involved in some physical fight on the Nassau International Airport which more or less accelerated our decision.”
The Director said the Immigration Board met earlier in the week and decided to refuse the applications. He also refuted any media report that stated, “We had denied renewals of the work permit.”
In addition, he explained that the six entered the country in April as visitors for 14 days and now have allegedly overstayed their time. As to the question of denying pilots, so to speak, “As far as we’re concerned they were never pilots because they never had any permission to perform that function here in The Bahamas – not as far as Immigration is concerned,” he said.
Mr Burrows said legal action was a course open to the Government, but they allowed the airline to give those in breach of the law time to leave the country.
Editor’s Note: Frankly, it is not clear why officials of the airline have not been arrested, but political cronyism is believed to be the reason.
Mr. Burrows also indicated that Western Air had applied for 16 work permits in total for two Canadians, two Peruvians and 12 Argentineans. With six of those having been rejected, Mr Burrows says a decision will be made later in the week regarding the remaining applications.
However he said two of the six people had already left the country and two were still in Nassau, and another two were in North Andros. He reiterated that all six had to be out of The Bahamas by 5 p.m. yesterday.
As regards how this decision will affect Western Air, the director added, “If our decision ends up causing something else to happen, that was not our intent. Our intent was to make sure that we manage migration into the country properly.”
Before the press conference wrapped up, Minister Peet stated: “I reject this attempt at political blackmail and I say to all who would listen that I have sworn an oath to protect the interests of Bahamians and their jobs and I intend to uphold this oath under all circumstances.”
Attempts were made by this daily to obtain some comment regarding these allegations from the operators of Western Air, but those calls were unsuccessful up to press time.
By: JIMENITA SWAIN, The Nassau Guardian
