Dear Editor,
The SN of Thursday, July 2, carried a story of a Jamaican, Samantha Tanya Peart, who will be deported from Antigua because she overstayed. This woman is the mother of two Antiguan children and she is going to be separated from them because the state of Antigua believes that she has no place there with her children. There is no thought apparently for the best interests of the Antiguan children who most likely would want their mother to stay with them.
And so it goes… as nationalism takes precedence, an injustice has been committed not only against this Caribbean woman, but also against her two children who have had no choice as to the location of their birth or immigration status of their mother, and will be made to suffer as a result.
Caribbean leaders like to invoke family values and the destruction of family when issues such as the decriminalising of homosexuality comes up. And yet, this travesty against the family of Samantha Tanya Peart would not have any national evangelical intercessions or prayer fasts.
It is telling of the Caribbean; Antigua, which hosted Allen Stanford for so long, cannot offer the same hospitality to Ms Peart and will cause her children to suffer. Shame on the Caribbean states which will use the excuse of immigration policies to destroy families.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
