Senator Fred Mitchell.
By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Tribune Staff Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
FOREIGN Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 2015 tabled in Parliament on Wednesday to grant resident belonger permits was not necessary to support the government’s newly implemented and controversial restrictions.
Mr Mitchell yesterday pointed to challenges people born in The Bahamas to non-national parents have experienced in conducting business with only a certificate of identity as a form of verification.
The government has been at the centre of a wave of criticism over its immigration policies to combat illegal migration. Mr Mitchell told The Tribune that he is expected to speak at the Human Rights Council in Geneva on March 3 to explain the policies.
He spoke briefly to reporters following the opening session of the 26th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The meetings, which began yesterday at the Melia Nassau Beach Resort, will end today.
Mr Mitchell said: “I don’t want to give the impression that this Bill, apart from the issue of the belongers permit which is a specialised product if you will, is to facilitate those who were born here to non-national parents. But this Bill was not necessary to support the policies which we announced.”
He went on the address concerns about certificates of identity. “There was also in one of the comments something about certificates of identity and the fact that with the certificate of identity there was no need to stop issuing them because this has caused increased complications.
“The feeling was by this particular writer, who is unnamed, that these certificates of identity were enough for people to still be able to manage their affairs in the banks and so on and so forth. But the information we have is that the certificates of identity do not do so.
“The US embassy might very well accept it (and) what the US accepts is their business. The problem is that people were relying on these documents to give them an immigration status in The Bahamas which those documents do not.”
He told reporters that all people should receive the passport of their nationality. Mr Mitchell said there was no need to pass any act in that regard.
The comments come as the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association (GBHRA) said Mr Mitchell and the Christie administration should be congratulated for acknowledging the need to act in accordance with the law.
In a press statement yesterday the GBHRA’s president, Fred Smith, QC, said they were in the process of reviewing the Bill and looked forward to additional bills covering other areas of the new immigration restrictions.
“Mr Mitchell, along with the rest of the Cabinet, is to be congratulated for acknowledging that the actions of elected officials must at all times remain within the framework of legislation passed by Parliament. The Bahamas is a democracy and cannot be governed according to arbitrary ministerial dictate, otherwise known as ‘policy’,” Mr Smith said.
Comments
birdiestrachan 9 years, 9 months ago
The truth is I do not understand this law or policy. but if Fred smith is please with it, it can not be good for the Bahamas or its people.
ispeakthetruth 9 years, 9 months ago
He really does need to explain, in depth, the requirements of the belonger's permit because on the surface, it makes no sense.
Everyone born in the Bahamas, does not "belong" the constitution implies this, so why provide belongers permit to all children of non-nationals and cement the right to apply for citizenship when not all of them will meet that requirement for citizenship? Some are recognized as citizens of their parents homeland; do they get a belonger's permit? It sounds that way. How would a belongers permit work for a minor child who is unemployable, and cannot live independently of their illegal parent(s)? Are they deported along with the illegal parent and expected to return at eighteen? Or do we turn a blind eye to the illegal parent until the child is of age? If the belonger's permits are primarily for kids 0-18, then why is the ability to work tied into it? What does "the discretion of.." mean exactly?
Well_mudda_take_sic 9 years, 9 months ago
WELL WORTH REPEATING: The changes proposed to our immigration laws seek to circumvent our constitution by the creation of a so called "resident belonger permit" that our Minister of Immigration would have the power to bestow on just about any illegal immigrant that he chooses. In tabling this bill, the government is effectively seeking the power to grant thousands and thousands of illegal immigrants the right to reside in the Bahamas and enjoy the benefits of doing so at the expense of the already over-burdened Bahamian taxpayer. This is a huge back-door amnesty initiative on the part of our government primarily aimed at bringing even more Haitians into our over-crowded public schools, hospitals and medical clinics, etc. The government's recent hard line stance towards illegal immigrants was nothing but a charade as all the while they were working behind the scenes on this bill in an effort to effectively circumvent our constitutional rights regarding exactly who is entitled to be a Bahamian and thereby reside in the Bahamas indefinitely. This bill will create another class of permanent residency that our Minister of Immigration would be able to dole out at his discretion to thousands and thousands of existing illegal immigrants as opposed to enforcing our existing laws which require their deportation! Small wonder Mitchell has not sought to obtain the additional funding he needs for the purpose of deporting illegal immigrants - he now simply plans to grant "resident belonger permits" proposed by this bill to just about all existing illegal immigrants. This undoubtedly will only encourage even more illegal immigration from countries like Haiti. Think how many Chinese will quickly follow the many illegal Haitians who are already taking a serious toll on our very limited resources.
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