The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Court of Appeal’s affirmation of an historic Supreme Court ruling on citizenship rights means there is light at the end of the tunnel for some residents who have long sought to be recognised as citizens of The Bahamas and to benefit from that recognition, one of five plaintiffs in the matter said yesterday.

Shannon Rolle, 22, said he was 12 years old when he began asking his mother why he could not enjoy certain privileges like other children, an inquiry that sent him on a long and difficult process to secure citizenship.

Born to an unwed Bahamian father and a Jamaican mother, he said he hopes that soon people like him will no longer endure the hurt of not being able to travel or find a job because they lack a passport.

“Some people turn into murderers and thieves when they find out how hard it is to get a passport when in this situation,” he said yesterday.

“You can’t even get a McDonald’s job without a passport.”

In a three-to-two decision, the Court of Appeal on Monday affirmed Supreme Court Justice Ian Winder’s ruling that children born out of wedlock in the Bahamas to Bahamian fathers are automatically citizens, regardless of the nationality of the mother.

Attorney General Carl Bethel has said his office will appeal the ruling.

Nonetheless, Mr Rolle is happy, even though he secured Bahamian citizenship last year by going through the normal citizenship-application process while his case continued to make its way through the Supreme Court.

“I’m a citizen now, but I went through the ropes dealing with the situation to get my citizenship,” he said.

His younger siblings, Lavaughn Rolle, 21, and Casshonya Rolle, 20, are also plaintiffs in the case and have not received Bahamian citizenship yet.

“My sister is now in the same position I was in,” Mr Rolle said. “It’s more difficult for her because they said she needs a Jamaican passport before getting a Bahamian passport when in actuality she has never travelled to Jamaica. She can’t open a bank account and she can’t get a driver’s licence. It’s a painful situation for her.”

Reflecting on the difficulty he experienced trying to get citizenship, Mr Rolle said the Department of Immigration once lost his documents and required him to reapply.

He said when he was younger, he hired a lawyer who advised him to get adopted by his father so he can get Bahamian citizenship that way, a common route for people in his predicament.

“I gave the lawyer some of the $1,500 she requested and on my 18th birthday she called me and said there’s nothing she can do because I’m 18 now,” he said. “I asked about the funds I gave her and she said lawyer fees are non-refundable. Then I went to another lawyer, who was very helpful. Along the way I even paid about $1,500 to a justice of the peace who said he would help me out with paperwork and stuff. After I gave him my money, I ain’t heard from him again. A lot of JPs giving people empty promises in relation to this and that’s another thing you have to deal with.”

One of Mr Rolle’s aunts recommended Mr Munroe to him.

“Mr Munroe told me I was the perfect candidate to go through this stuff,” he said. “He charged me $300 total but that wasn’t his fee, it was to get birth certificates and copies of key documents for our application process. In actuality, I’ve paid him nothing thus far and I think he’s the lawyer that’s helped me the most.”

Mr Munroe has been seeking to challenge the longstanding interpretation of an unwed Bahamian man’s ability to pass on his citizenship to children born to non-Bahamian mothers for years. He lost a previous case in 2009 when former Chief Justice Sir Burton Hall upheld the traditional interpretation of Article 6 of the Constitution. Because the son of his client was given legal status, his father did not proceed with the case to the Court of Appeal.

“I had a lot of faith in Mr Munroe,” Mr Rolle said. “I did research on him and I noticed he doesn’t lose a lot of cases. I told my sister it was too difficult to get the Jamaican passport so let’s go with this process instead. I was scared because I didn’t know if it was the right decision. I’m the oldest so I have to make people feel there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

Since getting citizenship, Mr Rolle said he has started his own business.

“It’s as if there’s nothing you can do without a passport and over the years it gets a bit more difficult,” he said. “From a young age I knew this was an extremely important document. I used to play volleyball. Let’s say the whole school is going to take a trip outside the country – I couldn’t do so because I didn’t have a passport.”