Philipsburg---22 Sept. 2006---Authorities are working on setting up the organisational structure for a new immigration service, separate from the police, Lt. Governor Franklyn Richards announced on Wednesday.

Richards explained that the new structure was being set up in close coordination with Minister of Justice David Dick. The intention is to have it ready by the end of the year.

Immigration will become a separate department not tied to police, an arrangement similar to that which currently exists in the U.S. and the Netherlands.

“Together with the Minister we believe we should set up an organisation in a professional manner that will handle immigration solely. Take it away from police and have police focus on keeping the island safe, catching the bandits,” he said.

Richards said the administrative process was being addressed as a first step and persons from the Ministry of Justice had been assigned to set up the structure in collaboration with the island territory.

Currently immigration matters are being handled by the Local Chief of Police PHP Office in Sun Color Building and by Immigration at the police department. He said these two departments would be put together in one building. A location that will be announced at a later date has already been identified.

After the administrative structure has been put in place, authorities will have to look at immigration control and border control in adding them to new structure in the future. He said the Dutch Royal Marechaussees were initially not part of the plan, which focuses on the administrative process.

But, he added, “I have always said that if we don’t have enough people to carry out the work, we should look outside.” He said it was also important to train our own people, especially because there was a shortage of immigration personnel.

As for the financial aspect of setting up this new structure, Richards said this would be covered through the Security Plan and financed through the Development Foundation Netherlands Antilles Implementation Office USONA.

Taking care of this affair now means having a separately functioning immigration service that will resort under the Ministry of Justice when St. Maarten becomes a country. “It is (being) done with that in mind,” he said.

Richards admitted that the PHP office wasn’t up to par and physically not well equipped to handle the many people who visited there to apply for their residence permits. He said this was one of the reasons PHP would be moved out of the Sun Color Building.

He said government was also working on a project to restructure the immigration process.

In the interview Richards expressed his concerns about immigration in general, the large influx of persons from abroad, the lack of control and especially the large number of illegal persons.