Minister for Agriculture, Lands, Housing, Environment, Youth Affairs and Sports, Honourable John P. Osborne, says the Government of Montserrat is continuing efforts to remove barriers that can make long-term residents feel like outsiders, despite their contributions to Montserrat.
Speaking during last Wednesday’s Citizenship Ceremony, Minister Osborne highlighted several measures aimed at making Montserrat a more welcoming place for non-nationals and their families.
“So, it’s a government’s job not only to say thank you with words but it’s our job to also remove those barriers that make people feel like guests in a place that they have already given their lives to. So we have been waiving alien landholding license requirements for non-nationals. We’ve started with Vincentians and Guyanese so far, and we’re not actually stopping there.”
Mr. Osborne the government is looking throughout the OECS and CARICOM “to regularize on a reciprocal basis for our brothers and sisters across the OECS and CARICOM so that when you come here, you can hold land in a place that you already love without having the extra burden of having to pay for landholding license. So spread the word that our government is actually working on that for our OECS and CARICOM nationals.”
The Minister says the government plans to go further, having already regularize health fees for children of non-nationals. “One other thing that we have done, and this is on the health care side, is that as a government, we felt that when you bring your children here even though your children aren’t nationalized, we felt that we shouldn’t treat children differently because of where they’re from. So we’ve regularized the fees throughout the hospitals on children. And what that does is just basically saying that a mother in this country should not feel like her child is worth less than any other child. On this island, every child’s future to us matters the same.”
Minister Osborne encouraged attendees to continue contributing to the Montserrat’s development by investing their skills, starting businesses, supporting community institutions and helping to build the nation’s future.
The minister said citizenship is not simply a status that is granted, but a responsibility that comes with helping to shape Montserrat’s future for generations to come.