Last Friday, the Department of Immigration hosted the first of what it promises to be a series of interactions with members of the different immigrant communities resident in Antigua and Barbuda.
At Friday’s meeting, it was the turn of the Dominican Republic community that was invited to hear directly from the Chief Immigration Officer, Katrina Yearwood and her staff on the procedures for two of the main concerns for members of the community; the issue of residency and the pathway to citizenship.
Speaking through an interpreter, Yearwood explained that there was much mis-conception among members of the DR community here in the country, and the meeting was called primarily to dispel these mis-conceptions.
She urged members of the community to contact the department if they had queries or to channel these inquiries through the resident Honorary Consul for the Dominican Republic, Joaquin Diaz Lopez.
“We want the DR community to know that we are here to assist them; they need not have any fears about coming in and have their issues resolved amicably,” she told the gathering.
Following a period of interactions with those in attendance, the meeting came to an end with those with more personal issues being advised to contact the Honorary Consul for further submission to the Department of Immigration.
At the end, the Minister responsible for Immigration, Sir Steadroy Benjamin, said he was quite pleased with how things went at the meeting.
“I’m extremely satisfied and pleased with the organization of this particular session by the Chief Immigration Officer and her staff. It was meant to explain to the Dominicanos that we are here to assist; to make certain that they understand that they must comply with the rules of immigration and that there is no need for them to fear immigration. I want to say that this is only the beginning of what is to come because there will be other programmes or sessions, like this designed specifically to improve the relationship between immigration department of our non-national communities,” he declared.
