Illegal Exploitation by Anguillians of Cheap Foreign Labour. So, what’s the latest scam in Anguilla? Come on! If you do not give me the information, I cannot be expected to go and ferret it all out by myself. There must be lots of interesting scams going on in Anguilla right now.
I mean, in addition to the 
contractors who go down to West End every Sunday before dawn and fill their pick-up vans with Chinese labourers from the Ashtrom project. The activity is done out in the open, even if admittedly a little early in the morning. No one from Immigration does a thing to stop them. You don’t believe me that any Anguillian contractor could be so greedy and careless? Why not do like I did? Stand at the intersection of the road to Great House Hotel and the South Hill Main Road for half an hour early on a Sunday morning. I was on my exercise walk at about 7:00 am. You don’t have to torture yourself like me. Just stand there for a half hour. I saw seven contractors’ pick-ups pass me filled with Chinese. They seemed to be in a hurry. The Chinese were laughing and looking around them. Some even made a feeble attempt to hide behind the doors of the pick-up. That was difficult to manage with six of them squeezed in the cabin. Mostly, they just looked happy. Happy to be out and about and earning some real money.
I checked with one of my 
contractor friends. This illegal practice has been going on for months now. The Chinese are paid US$60.00 for the one day’s work. The contractor charges the owner of the house he is building the usual US$100.00 to US$150.00 per worker per day for supplying such expert labour, and on a Sunday. And, they are expert labour. I am told that they do in that one day, Sunday, working from dawn to dusk, as much work as the average West Indian worker would do in a week. I feel bad about writing this. They are so earnest and so hard working, and so deserving of their pay. Working four Sundays a month they take home as much as they earn working for Ashtrom six days a week for the entire month.
But, should our sympathy for the plight of the Chinese allow this illegal activity to continue? Should we allow these contractors to flout the law with impunity? These Chinese may be here in Anguilla legally to work for Ashtrom. But, they are not permitted to work on outside jobs. If we say nothing, when the next contractor starts importing cheap illegal labour to be able to compete, what are we going to tell him? When you and I start employing our own personal illegal cheap labour, who will be the first to get prosecuted? Is it that we don’t care if we turn into another St Maarten development madhouse?
Has somebody been paid off?
Where are the ethics in all this confusion? Who is in charge here? Do our laws mean nothing? Come on, tell me what is going on!
contractors who go down to 
contractor friends. This illegal practice has been going on for months now. The Chinese are paid US$60.00 for the one day’s work. The contractor charges the owner of the house he is building the usual US$100.00 to US$150.00 per worker per day for supplying such expert labour, and on a Sunday. And, they are expert labour. I am told that they do in that one day, Sunday, working from dawn to dusk, as much work as the average West Indian worker would do in a week. I feel bad about writing this. They are so earnest and so hard working, and so deserving of their pay. Working four Sundays a month they take home as much as they earn working for Ashtrom six days a week for the entire month. 
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