Cayman Islands’ looming immigration problem has made headlines again.

The Bloomberg story we ran last week under the title “Paradise Lost” is the subject of an article in Bermuda’s Royal Gazette we have published today, “Cayman Islands could eject 2,000 work permit holders”.

The operative word here is “could”. It is not “will”.

The article does say Cayman’s new Premier Alden McLaughlin has made it “quite clear” to his immigration department that he wants to find a way to keep the expatriates while reducing a growing unemployment situation for Caymanians, according to Eric Bush, the nation’s chief immigration officer, who Bloomberg interviewed for the story.”

The main problem is that these 2,000 work-permit holders face expulsion from the Cayman Islands in October this year.

There has been no word from government if any extension is going to be given to these workers and this, of course, not only makes their situation difficult but also their employers’.

It is not a simple solution to say all the unemployed Caymanians can fill all these 2,000 positions that would be vacated, although listening to most of the rhetoric in the media and the election candidates one would believe it was.

It is a very difficult decision the new government has been presented with and whatever they decide is not going to please everybody. However, a decision must be made quickly.