Kirah Dames on the softball field - but amid citizenship problems, she is unable to travel to compete.
By AVA TURNQUEST
Tribune Chief Reporter
aturnquest@tribunemedia.net
BORN in The Bahamas without automatic citizenship, high school senior Kirah Dames’ dreams of playing professional softball have been halted as she watches her peers prepare for opportunities outside the country.
Her parents - a Bahamian man and a Jamaican mother who is a permanent resident - said the pain of watching their active teen fall through the cracks is incomparable and heartbreaking.
“I feel helpless in assisting my child who is trying to pursue her dreams,” said the teen’s father, Kirkwood Dames.
“I am losing sleep over this. She can’t travel, can’t get a driver’s permit. She can’t do anything her classmates can do. She can’t travel with her graduating class on the class trip. How do I explain to a 17-year-old that I cannot help her?”
Mr Dames, 47, added: “How would you feel if it was your child? This is a real situation which involves a real live person. I don’t think that they realise that. If she was to become successful in her sport, will she be classified as a Bahamian then? Will we then want to support her? What about now, can I please get some support now?”
The teen’s mother was born in Jamaica, but moved to The Bahamas at the age of ten; she is now 49 and is a permanent resident. The problem is that the couple were not married when Kirah was born, which means that she inherited her mother’s Jamaican nationality.
Her father says that he has read the constitution and according to Chapter 2 section 6 “every person born in The Bahamas after July 9th, 1973, shall become a citizen of The Bahamas at the date of his birth if at that date either of his parents is a citizen of The Bahamas.”
“I am a Bahamian,” Mr Dames declared. “Did that change? ”
However under the new immigration policy, Kirah must first apply for Jamaican citizenship, obtain a Jamaican passport, and then apply for a belonger’s permit that will allow her to work and live in the Bahamas. Her certificate of identity expired last year.
She can apply for Bahamian citizenship once she turns 18.
“Her dream is to play ball for The Bahamas and become a doctor,” Mr Dames said. “How can she achieve her dreams if her hands are tied and I can’t help her? It is breaking my heart to see my little girl cry every night over something that is not her fault.
“All I want is a document that will enable her to travel back and forth so she can go off to school to pursue her career in sports and get her degree, she will be eternally grateful and the Bahamas will be better off for having assisted her.”
Kirah is a senior at Tabernacle Baptist Christian Academy in Grand Bahama. She plays first and third base positions, and is also a junior coach for the Rising Stars team. She has an opportunity in July to attend a softball showcase to perform for a chance at a college scholarship.
“Kirah been playing baseball and softball since she was four years old,” her mother said. “She’s out there three to four times a day. This is her dream, every year she attends clinics in the US, that’s a lot of money we have been investing in sending her.
“Now she doesn’t have any documents to travel and this is crushing her. To live with a child growing up through that, they don’t know what it is. It’s nothing that she has done to warrant this so it’s just frustrating for us. So many opportunities she’s missing. It’s really depressing her.”
Her mother added: “They need to put something in place to allow these children to continue to travel because it’s like you’re putting your life on stop. They’re telling us to apply for a belonger’s permit but I don’t know one person that applied that has ever gotten one.”
Children born to a Bahamian man and a foreign woman who are not married do not receive automatic citizenship.
However, Bahamians will decide whether to change this in the upcoming gender equality referendum on June 7. Bill three would grant any unmarried Bahamian man the right to pass on his Bahamian citizenship to any child he fathers with a foreign woman with proof of paternity. The changes, however, will not be retroactive.
The teen’s parents are appealing to the government for a solution to the immigration problem that will not stunt the lives of young people.
Mr Dames said: “I understand that the upcoming referendum will change that for future children. What about the children of today? What about my child? Will that help her? Will I be able to pass my citizenship to her?
“Everyday when I get home from being at sea all day, she is there asking ‘Daddy anything change yet?’ I am frustrated with this arrangement. She is about to graduate high school in a few weeks. What is she supposed to do?
“To her, her future seems bleak,” Mr Dames said.
More like this story
- Taranique case 'shows need for naturalisation law'
- UPDATED: 'Gov't not paying Taranique's bills'
- Symonette: Sick teen not stateless
- Trapped - by lack of ‘official’ status: Immigration rules catch teen who needs US surgery
- ‘Please - answer my girl’s prayers’: Mum still waits for govt to help sick daughter
Comments
bravoqfox 8 years, 6 months ago
I feel your pain, however, she is not stateless. She is not prohibited from travelling or doing anything that she would want to do. She can very easily get a Jamaican passport, seeing as her mother is Jamaican and be entitled to apply for residency on the grounds of you being her father and provider. Also another thought would be for her mother to sign her parental custody over to you and you have the right to the child.
This is not a major problem. The way you may have gone about it makes an issue. At the age of 18 she is still entitled to apply for citizenship of the Bahamas, but she did/does not have to be stuck for the period prior to her 18th birthday.
Wowish 8 years, 6 months ago
Her being stateless is not the point though. No one is claiming that she is stateless. The point is that she is born to a Bahamian man, yet is disabled from getting citizenship until the age of 18 and thus she is unable to receive the same opportunities as her peers.
Economist 8 years, 6 months ago
You can't be a Christian. In any civilized country she would be a Bahamian Citizen.
Too bad you are not going through this. You would be squealing like a stuck pig.
ETJ 8 years, 6 months ago
Would someone please explain why so many people seem to be ok with denying the children of Bahamian men citizenship. This child's mother is a permanent resident of the Bahamas and has been here since she was a child herself. The child was born here and has grown up here. If her father were foreign and her mother Bahamian she would be straight. This is clearly discriminatory and wrong and THIS Is what the referendum seeks to correct. To say one solution is for the mother to sign over her parental rights is just downright heartless and mean. Do you realize that means the mother has to say she basically denounces and rejects her child? THAT is a humane solution? The homophobia and xenophobia being exhibited by so many is truly frightening and is what will continue to keep this country firmly entrenched in third world status. For anyone to think that voting yes is going to mean a huge influx of foreign men coming here to marry Bahamian women. Think again. Come here for what? Our incredible economic opportunities? Our thriving economy? Our social benefits? Come on. And actually the Dept of Immigration has a great procedure in place to ensure that marriages are genuine and they can weed out the convenience ones. And nothing in this referendum gives automatic citizenship to anyone. It only gives all legitimate spouses of Bahamian citizens the right to APPLY for citizenship. Does not mean they will get it.
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 6 months ago
The resulting significant influx to our country of thousands of foreign men who will marry Bahamian women to gain Bahamian citizenship and of thousands of foreign children already born to foreign women fathered by Bahamian men will have grave consequences for our country unless the majority of Bahamian voters vote "NO" on June 7th to all four of the proposed amendments to our constitution. The proposed changes to our constitution are much less about equal rights for Bahamian men and women and much more about creating a massive wave of foreigners coming to our shores at a time when our country's very limited resources can least accommodate them. The PLP government has failed miserably on its promise to grow the economy in order to provide private sector job opportunities; as a consequence unemployment and under employment are at all time record highs contrary to the government's meaningless misleading statistics.
DEDDIE 8 years, 6 months ago
Is that the reason why we have thousand of foreign women flocking to our country to marry Bahamian men. Come on people, make sure your reasoning is sound.
Reality_Check 8 years, 6 months ago
You fail to understand that Mudda_take_sic is talking about thousands of foreigners going all the way back to July 10th, 1973.
Fitmiss 8 years, 6 months ago
@Deddie I was thinking the same thing.
jusscool 8 years, 6 months ago
Very well said Brother! W.M.T.S.
Fitmiss 8 years, 6 months ago
So in essence you are saying, allow the wiser Bahamian men to marry whomever they wish, as they are able to ascertain that the foreign women that pursue them, do so from a sense of love for them. On the other hand, the Bahamian women who gave birth to these Bahamian men, raised these men, own businesses, are professors, doctors and lawyers to name a few are just too stupid, naïve, gullible and desperate for a man that they should be protected for their own good by being denied the rights that Bahamian men have. I feel so much better with that kind of thinking expressed repeatedly in print, in the media and in conversations.By the way my comments are facetious at best. This kind of thinking shows exactly why we need to end gender discrimination. Women suffer as well as children suffer in the long run. Yes, women and children who should be really protected by our men.
Well_mudda_take_sic 8 years, 6 months ago
Stop being so silly. What I've been saying all along is that marriage to a Bahamian man or Bahamian woman should not automatically entitle any foreigner to Bahamian citizenship with voting rights. Right now our constitution foolishly allows a foreign woman married to a Bahamian man to automatically acquire Bahamian citizenship. This should be corrected by way of an amendment to our constitution as opposed to compounding the existing problem by giving the same foolish right to a foreign man who marries a Bahamian woman. No one should automatically be entitled to Bahamian status of any kind by marriage alone, period! A known adjudged aggressive pedophile who is a foreigner should not automatically obtain Bahamian citizenship or any other form of Bahamian status by virtue of marrying a Bahamian man or a Bahamian woman.
Economist 8 years, 6 months ago
We are talking about a person who knows of no other country as home except The Bahamas, feels that she is Bahamian, her dad is Bahamian.
why on God's earth would we not want her to have her citizenship?
Instead we are telling her she is not one of us, she is a foreigner, she is different, she is not as good as the others that she grew up with.
What a bunch of small minded, scared, ignorant bigots.
Fitmiss 8 years, 6 months ago
I agree Economist as I have mentioned in prior posts that I personally have a step child who has a foreign mother. My husband, her father is a Bahamian but the child has never been considered one. These persons only know The Bahamas as home and did not enter this country illegally nor their forefathers. I am glad we are taking measures to address this moving forward.
Fitmiss 8 years, 6 months ago
Actually @ WMTS the fact that your comment was misconstrued by more than one person, shows that you clearly did not explain yourself. Now that you have either backpedalled or taken the time to elaborate, I can understand your point better although it is one not brought to the table during this referendum. Also keep your juvenile name calling to yourself as we are all adults on this site, and are entitled to our opinions and can express them freely, until a referendum is voted on saying we can't.. Thank you.
Economist 8 years, 6 months ago
Right on DEDDIE. This bigotry in this Country has got to stop. It is one of the reasons why we have so much unemployment as this attitude permeates everything.
These Bahamians are no different from the white redneck bigots in the US who still hate Black people and feel they are better than Black people.
Zakary 8 years, 6 months ago
It is disappointing, but the primary reason these amendments are not retroactive is due to their indirect implications on immigration. It was actually wise not to make them retroactive, as we would be in utter chaos if they passed with such a provision. It is about equality, but there are other tricky issues too. The debate this time is somewhat amusing though, because it is more or less non-partisan.
croberts6969 8 years, 6 months ago
There has got to be more to the story. If she was born in the Bahamas and her birth certificate lists the father who is a Bahamian, she is a citizen of the Bahamas. She needs to higher a lawyer. How about comrad Fred Smith?
Fitmiss 8 years, 6 months ago
My stepdaughter has a foreign mother and has to apply for citizenship when she turns 18. My husband is a Bahamian. It is the way it is even though many Bahamian text books used to say if your father was a Bahamian so are you. They have since been edited.
sunshine242 8 years, 6 months ago
oh oh !!! Here we go again. Another victim story. I wonder what's next...lol
Economist 8 years, 6 months ago
You are correct because the Constitution says "if either of the parents is a Bahamian".
But the Government says if you are not married then how do they know you are the father.
Yet still, they will give the child citizenship if it born outside the country even if they are not married. Go figure
Cas0072 8 years, 6 months ago
I am sure that upon seeing that her mother was not Bahamian, someone at the passport office or immigration put her on the wrong track of having to obtain a travel document. If obtaining a copy of the constitution was as easily available then, as it is now, he would have known better than to accept anything less than a passport for this child. By now, immigration should have an online tool to properly guide applicants toward the correct citizenship path based strictly on the many what if scenarios that apply to citizenship, and not leave it up to the bias and misinterpretation of front line employees.
jackbnimble 8 years, 6 months ago
In an election year, you can get citizenship in exchange for a vote and it doesn't mean you are suddenly allegiant to the country that gave it to you. Many use it as a means to an end (case in point, Loubey Georges). We are plagued with so many illegal immigration issue, we have trouble dealing with the persons who are here now, and yet we want to add three more classes of persons to the equation? We are opening a Pandora's box. Don't Do It. #killthebills #justvoteno!
Greentea 8 years, 6 months ago
amazing those who want to just see business as usual and the status quo maintained rather than having the country run properly. this is separate issue from immigration and won't have any impact on the business of Haitians and Bahamians loading their boats in northern Haiti for the one way cruise to the Bahamas.
justthefactsplease 8 years, 6 months ago
If he had done the honourable thing and married that woman before the child was born this problem would not have existed.
thephoenix562 8 years, 6 months ago
Persons born in The Bahamas after 9th July 1973.
6.- Every person born in The Bahamas after 9th July 1973 shall be come a citizen of The Bahamas at the date of his birth if at that date either of his parents is a citizen of The Bahamas.
14.-(1) Any reference in this Chapter to the father of a person shall, in relation to any person born out of wedlock other than a person legitimated before 10th July 1973, be construed as a reference to the mother of that person.
(
Economist 8 years, 6 months ago
14(1) relates more to a woman having a child, outside The Bahamas, to a foreign man in circumstances where they are not married.
This is where our Constitution rewards a Bahamian woman for having a child out of wedlock as it gives the child automatic Bahamian citizenship and punishes a Bahamian woman for having a child in marriage as the child is considered a foreigner and may apply at 18.
This would be corrected if we vote "yes" to Bill 1 so that a married Bahamian woman's child would also get automatic Bahamian Citizenship.
sheeprunner12 8 years, 6 months ago
That Article 6/14 situation is a moral anomaly but a legal expediency ........... now we have DNA testing ..... and the father of this teen could legally adopt her and solve the problem ....... but throwing a "pity party" won't solve the problem .......... but many foreign women come here and believe that if they have a child for a Bahamian man, that their future will be brighter (wrong!!!)
ThisIsOurs 8 years, 6 months ago
If the parent is Bahamian and the parent's permanent residence is in the Bahamas, the children should automatically be Bahamian. The key would be the definition of permanent residence. If the parent lives in another country they should be entitled to "apply".
Why doesn't he adopt her? This bill will not help her anyway as it's not retroactive. Don't know the cost of an adoption, maybe that's a barrier.
Sign in to comment
OpenID