The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

IMMIGRATION Minister Keith Bell claimed the woman he granted citizenship on Saturday has complained about receiving threats since the matter became public.

“There was one or two persons, particularly the wife of the deceased, had contacted me out of concern and threats, etc., that she received,” he told reporters before a Cabinet meeting yesterday. “And I told her that, you know, God is still in control and that everything would be alright.”

Mr Bell’s comment came after one of his predecessors, Brent Symonette, said he should resign from Cabinet for conferring citizenship to the woman and her two children during a funeral service at the Metropolitan Church of the Nazarene on Saturday.

“Here it is, we are talking about someone who introduced a Commercial Enterprises Act to allow persons in this country to bypass every process to obtain status in this country,” Mr Bell said, referring to Mr Symonette.

“We are talking about someone who had to resign on two occasions from the Cabinet of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas. And so his own record ought to be examined before he could point fingers at anyone. In my view, he has no moral authority to speak to me on this matter.”

Mr Symonette resigned as chairman of the Airport Authority in 2001 after a company tied to his family was awarded a contract to upgrade runways at the Lynden Pindling International Airport.

The Commercial Enterprises Act, meanwhile, liberalised the granting of work permits so that enterprises trying to establish themselves in The Bahamas could secure work permits for their management team and key personnel. The Davis administration has not repealed the law.

Mr Bell said on Monday that he conferred citizenship to three people during the funeral service of their patriarch, Franck Racine.

He said Mr Racine’s dying wish was that his family get Bahamian citizenship, a request Cabinet eventually granted.

“I honoured the wishes of a dying man, a Bahamian, and he has two children who were born in The Bahamas, and he has a wife and the spouses of Bahamians are entitled to citizenship under our constitution,” Mr Bell said.

“The same applies to children born in The Bahamas, and you will take note of the recent Privy Council decision which affirms that position that the children who were born in The Bahamas to a Bahamian man are entitled to citizenship.”

Mr Bell said issuing a certificate of citizenship is not the beginning of any process but the end of the citizenship process.

He called for “all right-thinking Bahamians” to let the mother and her children mourn the passing of Mr Racine in peace.

The swearing-in of the mother and her children was captured on audio during the service.

In the recording, the minister acknowledged that conferring citizenship at a funeral was unorthodox.