High Commissioner Urges UK Jamaicans to Regularise Status

The Jamaican High Commission in London will be embarking on a public education programme to educate the Diaspora about the need to regularise their status in the United Kingdom.

The programme, which includes immigration seminars, will begin with a seminar on March 13 this year.

Jamaican High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Her Excellency Aloun Ndombet Assamba, said the seminar is one in a series scheduled to take place this year in collaboration with members of the Jamaican Diaspora Advisory Board.

“We are getting immigration lawyers and persons who practise in that area to come and speak to our community,” she told JIS News.

The High Commissioner said that it is not the first time the Commission is hosting these events, since they have been done in the past, adding that officials of the Commission have also used every opportunity to speak to persons about regularising their status.

According to the Commissioner, the education programmes began when “the rules started changing and when it was absolutely free for persons to simply go in and get their status and get their citizenship.”

“We talked about it and we have had a number of immigration seminars. It is something that I have been personally preaching to every single group that I go to. It is an item which is in every single speech that any officer of the High Commission makes to any community grouping,” she added.

She said the topic has also been highlighted in several newspapers overseas, including the UK Gleaner, the Jamaica Times and the Commission’s newsletter.

Citing Jamaicans who have been living in the UK prior to Jamaica’s Independence in 1962, Mrs. Assamba said that British immigration authorities have assured the Commission that “it is not the intention to exclude those persons who have been here prior to 1962 from getting their rights to remain in the UK.”

“However, this right requires that the person does something, which means that the person has to make the application. Nobody will know that you are here, unless you make the application and prove that you have been here,” she emphasised.

The High Commissioner said it will not be difficult for persons to verify that they have been living in the UK.

“Proving this is very easy, since most people are employed, most people own houses, most people have children who were born here, so proving your right to be here is not a problem,” she continued.

The High Commissioner is also appealing to Jamaicans to support the Commission’s effort by reminding their relatives in the UK to apply for their citizenship.

Recently, a Jamaican who has been living in England for the past 54 years failed to apply for his British citizenship, and had to receive a special visa to return to England after a two-week vacation on the island.