Prime Min­is­ter Dr. Kei­th Row­ley is tak­ing a firm stance against squat­ters say­ing they can­not oc­cu­py the land il­le­gal­ly and then try to hold on to it when asked to leave. 

He said, "You can­not run a coun­try like that." 

"There are lots of peo­ple who are liv­ing in the coun­try, and there are pro­grams in the state to sup­port squat­ter reg­u­lar­i­sa­tion. There are pro­grams to as­sist peo­ple. But when we try to or­gan­ise the re­moval of per­sons who are oc­cu­py­ing state lands il­le­gal­ly, then it be­comes a com­plex is­sue, and it is not just about be­ing hu­mane," Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley main­tained.

The Prime Min­is­ter was re­spond­ing to ques­tions about the de­mo­li­tion of squat­ters at Ram­jat­tan Trace off Tumpuna Road in Ari­ma. On Thurs­day, an ex­ca­va­tor moved in and de­stroyed sev­er­al wood­en and con­crete struc­tures. 

While Dr. Row­ley ad­mit­ted he didn't have all the in­for­ma­tion, he did ac­knowl­edge the squat­ters had been warned. How­ev­er, those who live there say they tried to plead their case with sev­er­al agen­cies who dis­avowed knowl­edge of hand­ing out the evic­tion no­tice. They have com­plained they've tried un­suc­cess­ful­ly to meet with the HDC, LSA and their MP Fos­ter Cum­mings. 

"The in­for­ma­tion I have is that per­sons have oc­cu­pied the premis­es of a state agency that has been ear­marked for an or­gan­ised project," Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley ex­plained. "Peo­ple have tak­en oc­cu­pan­cy of it. Our con­cern is be­ing hu­mane, but we al­so have to be con­cerned about op­er­at­ing in a law­ful man­ner. My in­for­ma­tion is that they were giv­en ad­vice not to do it. They were ad­vised to leave in a de­cent and hu­mane way, but per­sons have de­cid­ed not to co­op­er­ate. If that hap­pens, you can­not run the coun­try like that. You can­not oc­cu­py land and then de­cide to fight and hold on to it."

Prime Min­is­ter Row­ley, Hous­ing Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is and MP for La Hor­quet­ta/ Tal­paro Fos­ter Cum­mings have all tak­en a strong stand against the squat­ters. 

“We make sure that peo­ple do not con­tin­ue to squat on state land,”  Robin­son Reg­is said.

Robin­son-Reg­is al­so high­light­ed the en­vi­ron­men­tal and in­fra­struc­tur­al chal­lenges caused by squat­ting.

“They have been oc­cu­py­ing the first re­serves, quar­ry­ing, and cre­at­ing a sit­u­a­tion that is un­ten­able,” she said.

La Hor­quet­ta/Tal­paro MP, Fos­ter Cum­mings, says it was painful for him to wit­ness the evic­tion of res­i­dents.

How­ev­er, he main­tains that the law ap­plies to every­one and ad­vis­es af­fect­ed res­i­dents to ac­quire homes through the prop­er chan­nels.

"I would ad­vise them, and I would even give what­ev­er sup­port I can to rec­om­mend that those who qual­i­fy can be con­sid­ered for that type of in­ter­ven­tion. But it can­not be that we op­er­ate in a law­less man­ner," said Cum­mings.

Cum­mings was speak­ing with re­porters af­ter a grant dis­tri­b­u­tion cer­e­mo­ny in Cou­va. Ear­li­er in the day he had di­rect­ed all ques­tions to the HDC, much to the cha­grain of the res­i­dents.