The Editor, Sir:
This is an open letter to the Minister of Labour who has come out recently, defending his ministry's decision to issue work permits to expatriate workers to work in certain sectors within the local economy.
I would like to point out to the minister or functionaries within the Ministry of Labour, that what is happening in Jamaica does not obtain anywhere else in the world. The ease with which expatriate workers are allowed to obtain employment in Jamaica is unacceptable and is inimical to national development.
Outrageous and scandalous
In recent years, Jamaica has been awash with so-called investors from India and China. But if you were to carry out an investigation of the composition of staff employed by Indian entrepreneurs, it would reveal that most, if not all of their workers, are from either Madras, Mumbai, Goa or Kerala in India. How can the Ministry of Labour issue work permits for people to come to Jamaica to be store clerks in a jewellery enterprise? This is outrageous and scandalous. The same thing is observed for a new breed of Chinese shopkeepers that has sprung up all over Jamaica.
In a country that is beset by high levels of unemployment, it is an immoral, uncaring and insensitive act by the Ministry of Labour.
There are Indian workers in Jamaica who have arrived in the island as visitors but were taken over from India to be workers in stores in the resort and other areas. They remain in the country over a protracted period of time as employees of Indian-owned companies without paying taxes to the state. This needs to be thoroughly investigated and rooted out.
I am, etc.,
P. THOMPSON
thompson987@yahoo.com
Linstead
St. Catherine
Via Go-Jamaica
