There comes a time when we must stop pretending that everything is working and start asking the difficult questions.
A few years ago, Premier Charles Washington Misick, along with Hon. Arlington Musgrove, visited The Bahamas.
In February 2023, the Turks and Caicos Islands Government appointed two Diaspora Liaison Officers to strengthen ties with Turks and Caicos Islanders living in The Bahamas Ms. Andrea Vernay Mills for New Providence and Canon Curtis Robinson for Grand Bahama.
My question is simple: What has been the outcome?
I think part of the reason I feel so passionately about this issue is because of my own upbringing.
I remember, as a little girl growing up in The Bahamas, listening to my mother and my two grandmothers tell stories about the Turks and Caicos Islands.
They spoke with such pride and love about their homeland that I became excited about a place I was too young to fully know. Every story painted a picture of a country rich in family, culture, and opportunity.
When summer vacation came around, my siblings would talk about wanting to go to Miami. Not me. I would always tell my mother, “I want to go to Provo.” Even as a little girl, I would board British Airways flights, sometimes travelling on my own, because all I wanted was to come back to the Turks and Caicos Islands.
I wanted to experience the country where I was born. I wanted to walk the streets my family talked about so proudly. My grandmothers would always boast about growing up in these islands, about the values they learned, the sense of community they shared, and how proud they were to call the Turks and Caicos Islands home.
Those stories shaped me. They made me dream of one day living here permanently and raising my own family here.
I wanted my children to experience the same pride, the same connection, and the same love for these islands that my mother and grandmothers passed down to me.
That is why this issue hurts so much. This is not just politics to me.
This is personal.
This is about preserving the dream that generations before us passed down a dream that every Turks and Caicos Islander, whether born here or born abroad to Turks and Caicos parents, should feel welcomed home and should never have to fight to feel like they belong in the country that belongs to them.
If these offices were established to reconnect with our people, encourage them to return home, and assist them through the process, why are so many still struggling to get their belongers card or status?
Speaking from my own observations, I can almost guarantee that every flight arriving from Grand Bahama brings between 10 and 20 envelopes containing documents from people trying to process applications.
If that happens, then something is clearly not working as efficiently as it should.
Many Turks and Caicos Islanders living abroad answered the call to return home to invest, to work, to raise their families, and to contribute to the country of their birth or heritage. Yet, for many of them, obtaining a Belonger’s Card takes years.
I know this firsthand.
In 2014, I submitted Belonger’s Card applications for both my sister and my aunt, who was born in the Turks and Caicos Islands. Both applications were submitted on the very same day.
One card was issued in 2017, while the other did not arrive until 2018.
Why should a process take three or four years?
Sadly, this is not just a story from the past, it is my present reality.
In April 2024, I submitted several Belonger applications on behalf of my siblings. To this day, I have not received any update or decision.
More recently, I submitted another application for the same individuals, and again, there has been no progress.
These are not applications from people with no connection to these islands. These are my siblings, whose mother, grandmother, and great-grandparents were all born in the Turks and Caicos Islands.
They have deep family roots here, yet they continue to wait without answers.
At the same time, I have witnessed people from other countries successfully obtain Belonger status while my own family remains in limbo.
That experience is difficult to understand and deeply frustrating. I am not suggesting that others should be denied opportunities. Rather, I am asking why people with longstanding Turks and Caicos heritage are left waiting for years without clear communication or timely decisions.
Our people deserve a process that is transparent, efficient, and fair.
We live in an age where technology is advancing faster than ever before. Governments around the world are digitizing services, allowing citizens to complete applications online, track progress, upload documents electronically, and receive updates in real time.
Yet we proudly market ourselves as a luxury destination while still relying heavily on paper-based systems and slow administrative processes.
If we can build world-class resorts, surely, we can build a modern system that serves our own people efficiently.
What makes this even more heartbreaking is the attitude some of us have toward our own people.
Many Turks and Caicos Islanders were not born in these islands, simply because their parents migrated temporarily for work or other opportunities.
Yet they are Belongers by right and by heritage. When they choose to return home to live and work, why are they sometimes met with hostility instead of welcome?
Why are we so quick to tear down our own?
This “crab in a barrel” mentality must stop.
As I write this, there is frustration in my heart because I have experienced what it feels like to be treated as a second-class citizen in another country. That experience taught me the importance of having a place you can truly call home.
It pains me to see that while we often roll out the red carpet for people from every corner of the world to live, work, and build successful lives in the Turks and Caicos Islands, some of our own sons and daughters struggle to receive the same support and acceptance.
This is not about attacking anyone. It is about asking whether we are truly putting Turks and Caicos Islanders first in the ways that matter.
The truth is uncomfortable: sometimes, we are our own biggest obstacle.
Our leaders have a responsibility to modernize systems, improve efficiency, and ensure that Belonger applications are processed fairly and within a reasonable timeframe. But we, as a people, also have a responsibility to stop viewing one another as competition and start viewing one another as partners in building this nation.
If we continue down the path we are on, I fear for the future.
I fear for my grandchildren’s future here in Turks and Caicos.
I want them to inherit a Turks and Caicos where they never have to question whether they belong in the country their ancestors helped build. I want them to live in a nation where being a Turks and Caicos Islander is valued, protected, and celebrated not just in speeches, but in policies, in practice, and in the way we treat one another.
The Turks and Caicos Islands should never become a place where Turks and Caicos Islanders feel like strangers in their own homeland.
It is time for honest conversations. It is time for meaningful action. And above all, it is time for us to remember that the strength of this country has always been its people.
This is not written out of anger, but out of love for the country that raised generations before me and the country I hope will continue to embrace generations after me.
Sanajah Forbes
Born Turks and Caicos Islander with a Bahamian Accent
