Senator John Le Fondré comment’s are in direct contradiction to those of the Island’s Children’s Commissioner Deborah McMillan who raised concerns in October.
The Island’s Migration Policy Board published its interim report which included four ‘hypothetical’ new categories for controlling access to housing and work in a bid to curb the Island’s increasing population.
They include a nine-month licence to ease temporary labour shortages, most probably in low-skilled sectors, which comes with ‘highly restricted access to accommodation’ and would stop migrants from bringing their families.
During a Corporate Services Scrutiny Panel hearing yesterday, Senator Le Fondré said the information he was receiving was that the rule would not be a contradiction of human rights.
He said: ‘What I have understood is that it is not non-compliant with human rights, the present position. What we have to be clear (about) before we make any changes at all in any direction, is what is the impact on population on the Island?.’
Mrs McMillan had said, in her official comments to the board’s report and reported by the JEP in October, she had ‘serious concerns’ about the proposals and how they may prevent family lives from continuing normally.
Pushed by Scrutiny Panel member Deputy Jess Perchard on whether, politically, it was the right thing to do given the government’s and the Chief Minister’s pledge to put children first, Senator Le Fondré reiterated that it was his understanding no human rights would be breached and he was ‘waiting to see’ what the Migration Policy Board came back with after further work.
He added: ‘There will have to be hard decisions if we are serious about the population.’
