Amigoe: Visa problem due to government’s bureaucracy. “power play of Justice-minister Rudy Croes (MEP) and a blunder of the government”

Amigoe: (9/1/06) Visa problem due to government’s bureaucracy < ?xml:namespace prefix ="" o />

ARUBA – Due to bureaucracy and the slow operation of the government, 30 physicians from Rumania were not admitting in Aruba.  They didn’t have a visa. In certain cases, the law allows the possibility to temporarily exempt from visa requirements.  This possibility was applied to the case of the Rumanians, but the Instituto Alarma y Seguridad Aruba (IASA) didn’t receive the written confirmation of this exemption until six days after the incident. 

The physicians were traveling to Lima to attend a conference.  They flew with the KLM to Bonaire, where it turned out that the airplane didn’t have enough kerosene to continue to Lima.  The company decided to fly to Aruba and continue to Lima the next day.  However, immigration officers stopped them in Aruba and they were not allowed to enter the island. 

The head of IASA, Rudolph Kelly held a press conference on Thursday.  His new organization intends to be transparent and open and he therefore wanted to explain what happened.  One of the morning papers described the sending back of the 30 physicians to Bonaire as power play of Justice-minister Rudy Croes (MEP) and a blunder of the government. 

Kelly says that his employees work exactly according to the book.  By checking for the correct documents, the immigration service checks whether people can enter Aruba or not.  That also includes the visa requirement for some countries.  By means of the ‘positive’ list containing the names of countries that do not require a visa, the immigration service determines whether a person can be admitted in Aruba with or without a visa.  Rumania is not on this list. 

The Dutch embassy in Rumania reports on her website www.olanda.ro under the header ‘Visa Instructions” that effective January 2002, Rumanian citizens do not need a visa to travel to Schengen-countries, which includes the Netherlands.  Effective January 2005, the Rumanian citizens do no longer need a visa to travel to the Neth.Antilles (Curaà §ao, St. Maarten, Statia, Saba and Bonaire).  The visa requirement is still effective for Aruba.  “This means that according to the ‘positive list’ as well as these guidelines of the Dutch Embassy, the Rumanian physicians needed a visa to enter Aruba”, said Kelly.  

He emphasized that IASA strictly complies with the rules regarding the admittance of people.  In connection with stricter control on the granting of permits and visa, the Netherlands had given a policy instruction in October of 2005.  That happened after the  rumours that minister Rudy Croes had admitted people without visa in the interest of his election campaign. “This instruction is not revoked and is still effective”, said Kelly. 

Four days after the incident, Kelly sent a letter to the Foreign Relations Administration (DDB) with the request to adjust the visa requirement for Rumanians.  He wrote based on the information of the Dutch Embassy:  “The visa requirement for Rumanians does no longer apply in the Netherlands and in the Neth.Antilles.  It is our preference to also update our ‘positive’ list.”

Six days after the incident, Kelly received a letter from the minister of Immigration, Booshi Wever (MEP) with a ‘general indication regarding the dispensation of the visa requirement’, indicating that holders of Rumanian- and Bulgarian passports do not need a visa to enter Aruba. 

Kelly explained during the press conference what a general indication means.  “In article 20 of the Central Law Register is stated that the minister in charge of immigration matters can give a general indication to the personnel that is in charge of interpreting the work as part of the National Ordinance.   This means in practice that the minister can decide on a temporary exception on the visa requirement and he passes this on to the immigration officers.  This is what happened in the case of the Rumanian physicians.

“It’s a shame that the minister had not made this letter available earlier.  There would not have been problems with the admission of the Rumanian Physicians.”