The Tribune

By DANA SMITH dsmith@tribunemedia.net HAITIAN Ambassador Antonio Rodrigue denied reports that thousands of Haitians were granted Bahamian citizenship last year, stating the number is closer to 500. Mr Rodrigue's statements concurred with those of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Brent Symonette, who called claims in the press that 10,000 people were awarded citizenship or permanent residency "grossly exaggerated". Mr Rodrigue said: "How many Bahamian-Haitians we have, it's not that much. "People keep talking about 10,000 citizenship given by the FNM. That's wrong, wrong, wrong." He said he knows this figure to be incorrect, because of the number who have appeared at the embassy to renounce their Haitian citizenship. "During last year, we had about 500 renounce - so where are those 10,000?" Mr Rodrigue asked. Even over a ten-year period, the number of Haitians who typically renounce at the embassy is around 3,000 or 4,000, according to Mr Rodrigue. "So I don't know where they get that 10,000," he said. "I know that's politics but I want to make it straight." Mr Symonette said last year that claims about the number of people awarded citizenship or permanent residency were exaggerated for political purposes. "It is a pity," he said, "that some things get so sensationalised as a result of political agendas." The government regularised 783 people last year, less than 10 per cent of the 10,000 suggested. Mr Symonette said that of the 278 persons regularised under section seven of the Bahamas Nationality Act, 1973, which pertains to children born in the Bahamas to non-Bahamian parents, 247 were Haitian.