The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

After reading what Peter Turnquest, the Deputy Leader of the Free National Movement (FNM), had to say about a discriminatory provision against spouses of Bahamian citizens in the Fisheries Bill during debate in the House of Assembly, I was moved to publicly support his position.

I lament the position taken by the government on this matter. The provision excluding spouses of Bahamians from commercial fishing tarnishes the codification of the fisheries law.

This offending provision with an obscenely outrageous penalty will overwhelmingly, if not exclusively, have a negative impact upon Bahamian women married to foreign nationals who are engaged in the fishing sector. It will have widespread ripple effects on human rights of persons legally present in our country with an unrestricted right to work.

Long before I joined the FNM thirty years ago, Janet Bostwick, the first woman elected to the House of Assembly, was crying in the wilderness for equity for Bahamian women and their foreign-born spouses and children.

I was pleased therefore that as a government, our party put in law a provision for Spousal Permits for such persons guaranteeing the right of the non-Bahamian spouses of all Bahamians, male and female, to be employed and or otherwise gainfully engaged in all endeavours and sectors of the Bahamian economy for 5 years. Thereafter they would qualify to obtain permanent resident status with the unrestricted right to work and later citizenship.

And we ensured nationality or permanent resident applications for the off springs of such marriages born overseas were routinely approved.

While not the ultimate ideal, the spousal permit placed Bahamian women on a more equal footing with Bahamian men as regards the ability of their foreign-born male spouses to work in our country.

I am therefore especially disappointed and distressed to learn that the party, likely caving to popular sentiment, stands ready to tarnish the Party’s distinguished record in support of equality before the law for all our citizens with the introduction of a pointedly discriminatory provision affecting the foreign-born spouses of Bahamian women.

I am fully aware of legitimate concerns of some Bahamian fishermen particularly those from Spanish Wells and Long Island, with the non-sustainable fishing practices reportedly employed by some non-Bahamian spouses particularly with regard to but not limited to conching. And, I am aware of allegations that some contract marriages with Bahamian women to facilitate their employment in the fisheries sector for a season and soon leave without trace. I am however, not as aware of individuals charged before our courts for either of these infractions.

Surely, there must be a better and more effective way for the government to monitor and enforce fisheries practices and to monitor marriages of convenience rather than indiscriminately excluding all non-Bahamian spouses of Bahamian citizens from being employed in an entire sector of the economy.

Already the law requires that all fishing boats must be owned by Bahamian citizens. One would expect that the vessels’ owners must be responsible for dictating fishing practices employed by their employees on their boat.

The observance and policing of our fisheries laws and regulations should not be limited to excluding a single category of individual from being gainfully employed in a sector of the economy particularly when such individuals hold an immigration status permitting their engagement in the economy without restriction. Removing and restricting rights of one particular class of person, to prevent possible infraction by some in that class is never acceptable. That is why governments are required and expected to police laws and policies to ensure their enforcement. And, it should not be lost on us that the potential harm to members of our society by the introduction of the proposed discriminatory provision in the Fisheries Act will not relieve the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force or our immigration authorities of their duty and responsibilities to enforce the laws of our country.

Peter Turnquest, like a goodly number of others now or recently in the cabinet of the government of The Bahamas, entered front line politics as “captain’s picks” in the Australian sense.

I am satisfied that Peter Turnquest who like Duane Sands and others whose names I choose not to record, represent our core values, and while no longer around the table, will continue to have their voices heard.

HUBERT A INGRAHAM

Nassau

December 21, 2020