The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

FINGERPRINTING has proven to be the Immigration Department’s best defence against fraud, according to Immigration Minister Brent Symonette, who spoke of the stunning accuracy of fake documents being generated.

The use of biometrics has ensured officials can net repeat offenders who smuggle themselves back into the country after deportation, and officials are seeing greater efficiency in concert with the department’s wider digitisation programme.

“The trouble nowadays with computers, the lifting of documents and being able to produce very good looking fakes is a big problem. We have two guys, same birth certificate, one was deported and the other was given citizenship. When you look at the file closely the same scratches on the birth certificate are on the other one, they were identical.

“Now we have to find out which is the right person,” Mr Symonette said.

“We’re fingerprinting now, it’s a big problem.”

Mr Symonette underscored challenges facing the department, and gave an update on digitisation efforts during a recent interview with The Tribune. He also provided a tour of a new facility to process citizenship and permanent residency applications. Once completed, applicants will no longer have to trek to Hawkins Hill as the building will also contain suites for interviews and the swearing-in process.

Since April, all applications are now being processed digitally with officials scanning and returning original copies instead of collecting them.

Work permits now take about two weeks to process, and legacy files have been indexed.

“It’s going very quickly,” Mr Symonette said of the department’s backlog.

“If you go into (Department of) Immigration, you can see not many files are being physically moved around. I’m comfortable with short-term work permits, work permits, resident spouse permits to an extent.

“I’m not comfortable about fraudulent marriages but renewals they are all moving. I’ve given a dictate on how to deal with that, so if you’ve had a spousal permit before we’ll just renew it until we get caught up. So all that backlog should be out of the way.”

Applicants for first time spousal permit will still be investigated, he underscored.

As for those switching from spousal permits to citizenship, Mr Symonette said: “We’re working from ten years out and then we are working our way back. So in 2019 you would have been married in 2009, so we have those in the year that you come up. We’re hitting ten years, when I was last year we were down to five years.

“We have a backlog to clean up,” he said.

Cabinet meets as an immigration office every week to ratify recommendations on various applications, most notably citizenship.

The government’s Citizenship Committee has now processed about 1,000 applications since it was formed last year February to drill down on a backlog that has seen people wait more than 10 years for a decision.

The committee meets every two weeks to review applications of people who have a clear constitutional right – ie they were born in the Bahamas and applied between the ages of 18 and 19 – to be registered as citizens.

Despite internal efforts, Mr Symonette said the department was still hindered by a lack of public engagement.

The department has some 500 incomplete applications for citizenship on file, but there has been limited response to outreach.

“We’re having a slow trickle of those (500 incomplete applications),” Mr Symonette said, “We’ve put their names in the newspapers already asking for more documents. When I do letters that I have no addresses for them, we send them to the various consulates.

“If you are to ask me now what the backlog is I have no idea,” he continued, “and I defy any of my predecessors to have any idea. I know its 1,000, beyond that I’ve been in the newspaper, on the radio, giving my cell number out.”

Mr Symonette said: “Surprisingly the response to that has not been great so if there is anyone else that thinks they should come into Hawkins Hill. We are trying to work on this backlog to get that over behind us.

“With all the articles backwards and forwards and Rights Bahamas, and it hasn’t driven people to (Department of) Immigration,” Mr Symonette said, “I can’t help them. This immigration thing since I’ve been here we’ve had full frontal newspaper, social media screaming, hollering. So if no one is coming, it’s their own, and they should be guided accordingly.”

When asked whether there has been any noticeable impact of system upgrades, Mr Symonette said: “I’m seeing less people contacting me, because they contact me at my constituency office and at (Department of) Immigration. I couldn’t say that scientifically, I hope so. With the computerisation we should make progress and time will tell.

“Someone else will get the benefit for it,” he added, “I won’t be around.”