Recently, the Chief Minister of Anguilla publicly released a long list of nationals from various islands in the Caribbean and from countries outside the region who were in Anguilla with criminal records against their names.

The disclosure was surprising to many people who questioned how such persons were allowed into the island in the first place. One would think that the easiest way to trace the character of immigrants is simply to ensure that they travel with a police record. If they have a bad one, they might not risk travelling to Anguilla or anywhere else and if they do so, they should face immediate deportation.

There can be no claim to human rights if a person going from one place to another is a potential threat to the peace and quiet of the society in which he or she wants to visit or to take up residence. Certainly not in these perilous and violent times. The other day a woman from one of the islands arrived in Anguilla by air and was booked to travel to St. Thomas. The flight was delayed for some time as the airline personnel who screened her discovered a suspicious reason for not allowing her to board the plane. Her baggage was subsequently taken from the trolley on the runway and she was sent back to her homeland. It is believed that she would have faced similar or even worse treatment in St. Thomas where homeland security is at its maximum level.

Anguilla, with its fragile tourism industry and already stained by various incidents of criminal activity, cannot afford to be careless at its ports of entry or at those unprotected seaports where illegal entry is constantly a worrisome matter. There has been a spate of crimes on the island and what is bothering is that it is not known who are the persons committing them and whether in fact some of them are not among those we have carelessly allowed entry into the island.

Life in Anguilla is changing rapidly and the fact that we are opening our doors to a growing number of persons from other nationalities is contributing significantly to that change. Anguillians have travelled in large numbers abroad in earlier years to sustain themselves and the remittance economy then, and so we must not be selfish in accommodating others seeking sojourn and employment in our island. What we have to do is to ensure that those we let in are not destructive elements. We have to preserve the good name of Anguilla. It is already tarnished by the unfortunate and criminal activities of some of our own kith and kin. We must carefully screen those coming to reside among us and exclude those we have reason to suspect – especially if they are coming with questionable records and backgrounds which may be discovered at the ports of entry.

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