MP Wescot wants a parliamentary briefing by the Minister of Justice on her trip to the Netherlands | SOUALIGA NEWSDAY

SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) - “I waited to see if the minister would have voluntarily apprised the parliament of her recent trip to the Netherlands, the (main) purpose of such and any agreements if made”, Member of Parliament (MP) Sarah Wescot Williams said in a press statement on Friday.

“That not being the case, I have -via the chairperson of parliament- requested the minister to provide this information to parliament. Clearly from the Minister’s press releases, the focus of the trip has been on the prison of St. Maarten and on the efforts to build a new prison.

“This would beg the question how far this process is locally and what are the financial implications for the country St. Maarten. Is this included in the 2022 budget? Are we still in charge of the process? 

“The Justice Committee of parliament, chaired by MP Heyliger Marten is planning a visit to the prison sometime next week.

“Rather than just wander around at the facility, it would in my opinion be much more constructive to have a report from the Minister of Justice beforehand, so that if any discussions are to be held with, be it management, staff or inmates’ representatives, at least the government and parliament would be privy to the same information.

“We have heard from the inmates and management of the prison in the past and the question would be, what if anything has changed since then? I can only imagine the situation rapidly deteriorating and the only one to enlighten the parliament adequately would be the Minister of Justice.

“I therefore hope that Minister Richardson will honor my request to update parliament on her efforts to move the project for a new prison forward before parliament undertakes any visits to the facility”, MP Wescot concluded.