KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent, CMC – Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has urged undocumented Africans, specifically Nigerians, residing in St. Vincent and the Grenadines to regularize their status, saying that they are an essential resource to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country.
Gonsalves, who visited Nigeria earlier this month, said an estimated 350-500 Nigerians reside here and that a significant number of them came in 2017 from All Saints University in Dominica following the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria.
“They came here, 100 and something of them, and others came as students to that university and the American University of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“What I understand is that when there was a change of government in Nigeria, the government altered its funding policy for medical students overseas,” said Gonsalves, who had delivered the convocation lecture at a private university in Lagos earlier this month.
“So, some of those students were left stranded. Some [are] doing work of one kind or another; some changed their courses. I know a couple of them are doing nursing right now rather than medicine; some have gone into music; some have skills as craftsmen and joiners and carpenters and the like,” he said.
“And many of them are what you may call undocumented; that is to say, they do not have any status now formalized other than their student status, and they are no longer students.
“And I am saying to them, I have said it to them, and I am saying again, please come and regularise yourself. Get residence, get work permits. Regularise yourself.”
Gonsalves said that the former students who have been here for over seven years can apply to become citizens.
“In short, we have several bright, young Nigerians. We haven’t paid for their primary education, we haven’t paid for their secondary education, we haven’t paid anything for their tertiary education. They are a resource. They are an important resource,” he said, noting that some Nigerians have married Vincentian women and received citizenship.
“Some, like other persons, have migrated since they married their partners. Some are here. In other words, it’s a mixed group.
“And, my observation is this: the country’s working people and peasantry have provided our Nigerian brothers and sisters with tremendous solidarity. I know of many, many cases. We must not in any way at all discriminate or hold anything against young, law-abiding people.
“They may be undocumented but law-abiding in the sense that they are not involved in any criminal activity,” said Gonsalves, the Minister of National Security.
He said that if any of the undocumented Africans get involved in criminal activity, “the relevant institutions of the state, the police, the court will deal with that.
“And night will follow day in those circumstances in that the court would address them accordingly in every material particular. The point is this: I am encouraging them to regularise themselves.
“For those persons who may have any bias — and the number will have a bias against them because they are Nigerians is a number which is declining in our society because some of those persons — if they were Americans or Canadians or Europeans, British, for instance, or French, may not have been so unfavorable towards them. But that is a minority in our country, and it’s part of my duty to speak honestly towards these particular facts and circumstances,” Gonsalves added.
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