The Tribune

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell assured reporters yesterday that government’s “Bahamian first” approach on immigration matters would not end up in masses of foreign workers being ushered out of the country.

Probably not, but a repeat of an incident that took place at Atlantis yesterday could end up in masses of visitors cancelling their visits to the Bahamas.

“This (Bahamianisation policy),” explained Mr Mitchell, “is a rational policy by a rational government which is acting reasonably in the defence of its own people. This is the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.”

Almost at the same moment that Mr Mitchell was defending his government’s stricter Immigration policy, three Immigration officers were in Atlantis’ water park and, in front of a group of tourists, proceeded to make a nonsense of what he had just said. There was nothing rational or reasonable in their behaviour.

Without warning, two uniformed men and a plain-clothes officer entered the water park through a back gate. They quickly moved into the area where the hotel’s head sea lion trainer and the lions were interacting with visitors. The tourists were all having a wonderful time, in a delightful setting when suddenly these men intruded, demanded the passport of the trainer, and when she couldn’t produce it, put her in a government vehicle, and without explanation, drove off. Reminds one of the Kremlin’s KGB whisking citizens off for a trip to the Gulag.

Incidentally, who would carry their passport to a water park? And where were these men’s manners for which Bahamians were once noted?

Obviously they were “little men dressed in brief authority” — an authority that had obviously gone to their heads, and deprived them of their senses.

“They came there without any warning,” said an Atlantis colleague, “without even the courtesy of a call, and disrupted business operations. They came in through a back gate and detained her during a guest interaction in front of visitors and employees.

“They were very rude, demanding to see her passport, and when she explained that she didn’t have it on her, they put her in a car and drove her away.

“It happened in front of everybody, it was just unnecessary. She is not just anybody – she is highly sought after, one of the top people in her field.”

Mr Mitchell has assured us that top people in their field would have their work permits renewed if there were no Bahamians to replace them. Can Mr Mitchell produce a Bahamian of this trainer’s expertise and experience to take her place? Or is Atlantis — which has always had training programmes to enable Bahamians to qualify for a place on its staff – to be deprived of the best to give a less qualified Bahamian a job? This is not what visitors expect, especially as they are paying top dollars for their vacation.

But if this is the way the stricter policy is to operate, how can Atlantis hope to compete with the best that the world has to offer? Keep this up and Bahamians will quickly shrink the economy, and deprive themselves and their friends of job opportunities.

Apparently, certain disgruntled Bahamians, not privy to the trainer’s immigration status, reported to the department that she was working without a work permit.

They did not know that, although her permit had originally been turned down, Atlantis had appealed the refusal. The practice is that a person continues in their employment until all avenues of appeal have been exhausted. So the trainer was not working illegally.

Why did Immigration take the word of someone outside the department, instead of doing their job and checking their database, which should contain the information that would have prevented them from embarrassing themselves and this country.

When tourists complain about the Bahamas, it is usually because it is too expensive. When business persons criticise, it is generally because its work force lacks both a work ethic and expertise. Also for unionised businesses, the unreasonableness of union leaders, ends in their downfall.

It was quite a blow to this economy when Bacardi decided to close its 44-year-old operation and move to Puerto Rico. A striking union, which did not appreciate Bacardi’s business difficulties, did not help matters. As a matter of fact, they played a dirty smear campaign and hastened the company’s departure.

Bacardi decided that it was time to leave. It would be in a better competitive position in Puerto Rico than in Nassau. This meant that 114 Bahamians were out of work and government had lost more than $13 million in annual tax revenue — not to mention the many other ancillary benefits to the community.

A Tribune reader, commenting on the editorial written at the time of the Bacardi pull-out said: “Today’s editorial outlines clearly the consequences when politicians and unions fail to heed the practical advice of businesses on how unreasonable demands, greed, and the failure to embrace collectively with businesses the real competitive issues like poor productivity, costly and unreliable infrastructure, and the consequence of a dismal education system, affect the very survival of a business.”