Page 4 - AUA Traveller Aug 10

The rising insecurity in Aruba is extremely
concerning to ATIA, AHATA and FTA officials

COMMERCIAl union to inform us of what steps the are unacceptable, but it’s much worst when these
Government is planning to shootings and robberies take place in our hotel area,
officials are extremely take to immediately put since it could have immeasurable consequences to
concerned with the a stop to this extremely our economy.
negative develop- negative tendency de-
ments that have veloping on our is- “We completely understand that crime can never be
been taking place land. We are aware completely stopped and there will always be people
the past few of the Aruban police that walk around armed and that think they commit
weeks. force’s record in solv- robberies our heists, but the current situation needs
ing crimes in Aruba immediate attention, which is why we ask that all
The past 2 weeks and the messaures they
there have been take to keep Aruba available justice measures by taken, includ-
3 shootings on our safe which have ing our law, maybe they could
island, two of them yielded posi- be used to prevent and
were in the tourist area. slow down or stop this
Violent crime is rising in tive results, tendency as much
Aruba, according to a release for example: as possible.
signed by ATIA President Michelle doing car check-ups
Henriquez, AHATA CEO Jim Hepple and FTA on weekends, but these mea- Aruba is cur-
President Hubert Dirksz. sures clearly aren’t enough” rently fac-
According to ATIA, AHATA ing many
Recently a Chinese merchant was shot during an at- and FTA. challenges.
tack at his store. Also concerning is the large amount One of them
of weapons found in people’s possession every day. The main reason for these of- being the
Aruba is very well known for the peace and tranquil- ficials to ask to urgently meet amount of
ity it has to offer, which happens to be one of the with Government officials people illegal-
most important ingredients to our thriving tourism; that responsible for our islands’ ly entering our
however the rising violence of the past few days put safety is to exchange ideas and to island or illegally
a dark cloud on Aruba. It could ruin our good name be better informed about possible remaining on our
and reputation as a safe and peaceful island for island, these people are
our tourists. actions that the Government may usually from nearby countries
be planning to bring a solution that are known and considered dan-
Due to the recent occurrences to this problem and to change the gerous countries.”
these three unions decided course this country is headed
it was necessary and ur- in. Regarding the rising crime rate in Aruba, the union
gent to direct the gov- officials wonder: What is being done and what mea-
ernment’s attention to Tourism is 85% of sures are being taken to avoid and put a stop to the
this issue, especially our economy, which outbreak of crime that is taking place on our island
since it could directly means that about because of the amount of illegal people coming to
affect our economic 85% of the working Aruba from dangerous countries?
pillar, which is our community and com-
tourism. merce is directly and ATIA, AHATA and FTA executives concluded their
indirectly dependant letter by mentioning how much they hope to urgently
“We know that the crime on this industry. meet with the Ministers responsible with our coun-
rate is increasing world- tries safety so that their concerns and the people’s
wide and that all Caribbean Shootings and robberies concerns could be tended to and possibly put to rest.
islands deal with a high crime taking place on the island
index, but that does not necessarily
mean that Aruba needs to be part of this group
our even tolerate this rise in crime. That’s why we as
union and commercial officials appeal to the Aruban
Government, which happens to be the ones responsi-
ble for our island’s safety and security, to meet with us

4 LOCAL Monday, August 10 2015 - ARUBA TRAVELLER