By Claude Mills, Staff ReporterJAMAICAN LOBBY groups here and overseas say they will be doubling their efforts in applying pressure on the British Government to curb immigration policies which unfairly target Jamaicans.
"Most of the laws being passed in Britain are targeting modern-day Jamaicans," Percival Latouche, president of the Caribbean Association for the Resettlement of the Returning Residents, said.
"Many Jamaicans came to the UK in the 1950s, where, in those days, they took us without skills because it was after World War II, and they needed us to help rebuild their country. Now that they have used us, they don't want any more Jamaicans who are non-skilled? That hurts... that really hurts."
Mark Waller, press and political affairs officer at the British High Commission, denied that the controls directly target the Jamaican community.
"The laws are not just for Jamaican nationals, but also for a wide number of other foreign visa nationals from other countries. Too many people were applying for visitor visas when they clearly had an intention of staying for another reason. This change will not be difficult for those who want to study legitimately," Mr. Waller said.
Between January 1 to August 3, 2004, Jamaicans were granted 4,895 six-month visitor's visas, while 11 student visas were issued for six month courses, and 85 student visas were granted in different categories.
"We don't know how many Jamaicans are part-time or full-time students. It is unlikely that this figure would be more than 5,500, but this is a significant number who may not be given the permission to remain," John Small, a lecturer in the department of sociology in the University of the West Indies, said.
LOBBY THE QUEEN
Mr. Latouche maintains that the immigration controls are discriminatory, and said he was committed to fight any future attempts to discriminate against peoples of colour.
"Anytime there is a law passed in Britain, it is almost always targeting Jamaicans. We need more voices in England; we need to form ourselves into a group to protest when these laws are coming through. If we lobby the British parliament on laws negatively affecting Jamaicans, and we get no response, we will just have to lobby Her Majesty The Queen. We cannot sit down and keep sucking up everything," he said. According to the UK Control of Immigration statistics 2001, among those who applied to remain as a student in that country, 5,115 were given permission.
The new measures, to come into effect on October 1, 2004, will build on action the UK government has already taken as part of its ongoing review and tightening of immigration controls. The British Home Office cited numerous Jamaican visitors and immigration breaches committed by Jamaicans, and released figures showing that between January and June 2002, an average of more than 150 Jamaican nationals stayed beyond their entitlement.
On the other side of the immigration debate, Jamaicans were the largest numbers of people from the Latin American region to be granted extensions to stay in the UK in 2002 with 13,670 Jamaicans granted extensions, while 3,095 were refused.
