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For chance to be served in the day
PHILIPSBURG--While most residents are asleep in the comfort of their homes at night, a crowd of immigrants happy for the opportunity to regulate their legal status take up residence outside three government offices.
Some use towels and cardboard boxes as sheets, their bags as pillows and their clothing as blankets. Others sit sleeping with their heads in their laps, some stand and brace against walls for a quick nap and others sleep in their cars parked nearby. They tough out the cold night and morning dew and use conversations and humour to pass the hours as they wait for the office to open. The Brooks Tower Accord (BTA) applicants abandon their homes for a chance to obtain numbers to be served.
This is what The Daily Herald observed in the wee hours of Thursday morning when it visited the Immigration and Naturalisation Department (IND) on A.Th. Illidge Road, the Labour Department on Walter Nisbeth Road and the Island Receiver's Office located in the Civil Registry.
Undocumented immigrants are required to visit these three departments in their efforts to become legal residents through the BTA process, which has been extended on several occasions to give people a chance to regulate their status.
National Alliance leader William Marlin, who observed the situation earlier this week, described the recent situation as "inhumane" and has made a proposal to government to address the situation.
The biggest crowd observed by this newspaper was at the Labour Office. Up to 51 persons were already in queue when this newspaper visited. The first person had been there from as early as 8:00pm the day before. The department handles 60 persons per day, the workers said.
About 15 persons were at IND, one of whom was fast asleep nearby. She had covered herself with towels and slept so as to not miss her spot in line. There were six persons outside Civil Registry department, one from as early as 3:00am.
At the Labour Office one woman who used a cardboard box as bed and slept there had just gotten up. Several persons told this newspaper they had been waiting since 11:00pm Wednesday, while others said they had showed up around 1:00am and others around 2:00am Thursday.
One woman who gave her name as Prudence said the wait was frustrating. "A better system should be in place," she said.
The BTA applicants said the Labour Department staffers were not at fault, as they were doing their utmost, but said a system should be instituted to prevent the chaos that occurs when the office opens.
Many of the applicants who spoke to this newspaper said they had been visiting the office for several days, but due to the chaos had been unable to obtain numbers for service. One man said he had visited last week, but had been "sent away." He said he had visited again on Tuesday and again had been turned away as he was too late. He decided to go at 2:00am on Thursday to better his chances of obtaining a number.
He assumed the role of security on this night and was instrumental in placing persons who showed up in queue, to prevent chaos when the much larger crowd showed up at dawn.
In giving an insight into the BTA procedure, the workers said the applicants were first required to visit the IND office to register. They are then given a paper to visit the Labour Office with their employer to "sign" for them. Most of the immigrants tough it out in the long queues and call their employers when it is their turn to be served.
The workers are then required to visit the Island Receiver's Office to pay, then they have to return to the Labour Office with their receipts, and then head back to the IND building.
Two female resort workers who spoke to this newspaper outside the Census Office said chaos had erupted at the Labour Office on Tuesday when they visited. They said persons who had turned up around 7:00am had been pushing and shoving because they wanted numbers. Many of the persons who had been there hours earlier did not receive numbers. The following morning they went to the office at 2:00am and said they were "lucky" to get numbers
Marlin said this "inhumane" situation should be a "thing of the past." He had proposed that government determine how many persons it could handle in a day and based on this number government should invite outstanding applicants to the office and give out numbers equivalent to a week, or more if necessary, on a "first come, first served" basis, with a specific number of applicants to be handled each day.
"If you estimate you can handle 100 people a day, organise for people to gather and even if the line is a mile long, give out numbers 1 to 100 for Monday, another 100 for Tuesday and another 100 for Wednesday. People would then know what day to go to the office, but as it is people show up early only to find out others were there from the night before and they don't even get into the office in the order that they have arrived.
"I suggest that they create a more humane and organised system," Marlin had said. "But don't have people camping out or sleeping out on the Pondfill. It's not good for us to call ourselves country and behave in such an underdeveloped and inhumane manner. This should be thing of the past."
Not many people were outside the Labour Office when this newspaper checked back on Thursday afternoon.
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