An agreement between the French part of the island of Saint-Martin and the Dutch part was signed on Thursday, June 28 in Paris, to improve cooperation, particularly in terms of reconstruction after Hurricane Irma and the fight against immigration. illegal, waste management and maritime links.
In a joint statement, the French Minister of Overseas Territories, Annick Girardin, the president of the community of Saint-Martin, Daniel Gibbs, the Secretary of State of the Ministry of the Interior of the Netherlands, Raymond Knops and the First Minister of Sint-Maarten, Leona Marlin-Roméo, indicate that they have signed a Final Declaration in Paris, which acts as a strengthening of cooperation between the two parts of the island in terms of reconstruction, after the devastating passage of Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
In this quadripartite declaration, the parties agree in particular on the removal, treatment and securing, before the next tourist season in December, of the wrecks of boats that sank in the lagoon of Simpson Bay, which Saint -Martin and Sint Maarten.
The parties also intend to work on “a common direction in the sustainable management of waste”, to reach an agreement by March 2019.
The signatories also agreed on the need for “a cooperation agreement on crisis management”, to “have a shared and coordinated vision of the actions to be carried out in terms of alert and communication to the population. ”.
With regard to the fight against illegal immigration, the signatories underline a “very satisfactory” cooperation, but “in the face of a strengthening of migratory flows”, and “the need to develop coordinated strategies to combat the underground economy, and in particular illegal work, in the context of the reconstruction ”, they agreed in particular“ on the reciprocal presence of immigration officials at the airports of the two territories ”.
They also noted the need for an exchange of information to fight against fraud in social benefits, “in particular for people who are in fact domiciled on the other part of the island”.
Finally, the signatories agreed to “finalize and conclude by November” an agreement “to regulate maritime traffic between Anguilla / Saint-Martin / Sint Maarten with regard in particular to the passage of ships through French territorial waters”, and provide for “To study the establishment of a mechanism for periodic communication of data relating to the flow of goods (import and export) processed in the territory of one of the parties but intended for the other” .
President Gibbs said he was very satisfied with this quadripartite agreement which demonstrates the shared will to make concrete progress on key issues for the future of our island.
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