Dear Editor,
I read the article regarding three Jamaicans fined $450 for working without permit in T&T, and further noted that their passports were stamped "Employment not permitted".
I am a Jamaican by birth and carry a Jamaican passport. I am a naturalised citizen of the USA. I have spent most of my life here in the USA.
When I come to Jamaica, as I have done every year for more than four decades, I present my Jamaican passport to the immigration officer. My passport is stamped, "Employment not permitted".
Why am I treated like an alien, as the Jamaicans in T&T were in the above case?
While I do not want or seek employment, I feel that I am discriminated against in my own country.
On every visit I spend tens of thousands of dollars providing work and income for at-home Jamaicans who turn up without tools, requesting "tea", and asking for cash payment before doing one minute of work.
I am a Jamaican, and I am proud of being Jamaican. However, I cannot be proud of the work ethic I encounter in Jamaica, neither can I be proud of the stamp in my Jamaican passport "Employment not permitted".
Louis A Hemans
Hyattsville, Maryland
Employment not permitted
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I read the article regarding three Jamaicans fined $450 for working without permit in T&T, and further noted that their passports were stamped "Employment not permitted".
I am a Jamaican by birth and carry a Jamaican passport. I am a naturalised citizen of the USA. I have spent most of my life here in the USA.
When I come to Jamaica, as I have done every year for more than four decades, I present my Jamaican passport to the immigration officer. My passport is stamped, "Employment not permitted".
Why am I treated like an alien, as the Jamaicans in T&T were in the above case?
While I do not want or seek employment, I feel that I am discriminated against in my own country.
On every visit I spend tens of thousands of dollars providing work and income for at-home Jamaicans who turn up without tools, requesting "tea", and asking for cash payment before doing one minute of work.
I am a Jamaican, and I am proud of being Jamaican. However, I cannot be proud of the work ethic I encounter in Jamaica, neither can I be proud of the stamp in my Jamaican passport "Employment not permitted".
Louis A Hemans
Hyattsville, Maryland
Employment not permitted
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