Troy Christopher appointed as chairman of Immigration Board

Troy Christopher, a recent political hopeful and son of the late former legislator, Delores Christopher, has been announced as the newest Chairman of the Immigration Board.

Christopher’s appointment became effective from August 15 and he is expected to serve for a two-year term alongside a number of other new and re-appointed members that were recently revealed in a Cabinet post-meeting statement.

Shakira Skelton Leonard and Michelle Todman-Smith were announced as new members of the Board while Rexella Hodge and Kimberly Seagojo were both reappointed to serve as members for the same two-year period.

Cabinet also announced that the Chairman will be paid a stipend of $1,200 per month while ordinary members will receive a stipend of $800 per month.

The Immigration board’s role is to provide advisory and consultative functions, without any executive or administrative functions, concerning or connected with the entry of persons into the territory, and the residence and occupation in the territory of persons who do not belong to the BVI.

The Immigration Department, in seeking new board members several months ago, said members must possess requisite leadership skills, sound knowledge of the territory’s cultural heritage, knowledge and/or have a willingness to learn about and analyse emerging issues in law and human rights, both locally and globally.

The department has come under scrutiny in recent months after Governor John Rankin repeatedly alluded to a backlog in the processing of Belongership applications in the wake of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) report and a shortage in staff members in the department.

Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley has refuted claims that there has been a backlog of any sort, contending that many of the applications that are now being counted as part of that backlog were made after the government agreed to accept Belongership applications for persons living in the territory for more than 10 years.

A previous policy in place only accepted applications coming from persons who had been living in the territory for more than 20 years, which the COI concluded was contrary to the current law in place.