The Quill Crater
ST. EUSTATIUS--Action group Justice for Statia launched a petition on Friday, September 11, against further exceptions to the measures to curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic in St. Eustatius, under the slogan “No More Exceptions. Rule for One, Rule for All”.
The initiators of the petition drive stated that during the last couple of months more and more exceptions have been made pertaining to the travel restrictions imposed by the public entity St. Eustatius for “mostly” non-residents.
Under the name of “essential workers”, persons who were traveling from medium- and high-risk territories were granted access to Statia without being quarantined for 14 days. Meanwhile, residents and entrepreneurs without exceptions had to pay additional cost for travelling to the island and for their quarantine.
“These double standards are unacceptable for many residents (employees, entrepreneurs and pensioners), especially because [as a result of – Ed.] of these exceptions persons got contaminated and the risk of further spreading of the COVID-19 virus has increased,” the petitioners stated.
Meanwhile, non-essential businesses and schools have been closed and a curfew was implemented at midnight on Wednesday.
“Again, the government asks us for offering to fight this crisis together, but when these exceptions were made nobody cared about our opinion and nobody listened. There was no ‘together’ at that time. This can happen never again,” the petitioners state.
With this petition they want to give a strong signal to the public entity by “forcing” State Secretary of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations Raymond Knops to instruct the government commissioners to stop making exceptions to prevailing legislation in general, but especially when it comes to COVID-19.
“A 14-day quarantine needs to be mandatory for everybody who travels from medium- or high-risk territories and applicable for everybody, including essential workers,” they said.
The petition can be signed by residents, entrepreneurs and stakeholders, anonymously or in person, and can be found under the link:
https://justiceforstatia.petities.nl/?locale=en.
