By RASHAD ROLLE
Tribune Senior Reporter
rrolle@tribunemedia.net
FOREIGN Affairs Minister Darren Henfield said the consular division of his ministry helped the Department of Immigration repatriate 1,053 foreigners to their homelands between July 2020 and May 2021.
He was speaking during his contribution to the budget debate yesterday. He said 713 of the repatriated people were Haitian nationals and 340 were people from other countries.
“The division was also instrumental in assisting overseas missions with deportation and the return of 62 Bahamians from the US to The Bahamas during the period of July 2020 to May 2021,” he said.
Mr Henfield said the division continues to help Bahamians in distress in foreign countries. In particular, 539 Bahamians who were distressed and/or displaced abroad were helped during the relevant period.
“The consular division has also rendered assistance to 16 foreign nations in distress in The Bahamas and served as an intermediary between relevant agencies, including honorary consuls and embassies,” he said.
Turning to other parts of his portfolio, Mr Henfield said with its expanded capacity, the Passport Office enrolled 43,366 people from July 1, 2020 to May 2021 and generated $1,183,045.
Of the enrolled, “adult enrolment totalled 27,285, minor enrolment totalled 7,982 and 8,099 online enrolment,” he said.
The government expanded the passport online portal in December 2020 to let applicants ages 15-17 renew their passports. The digital portal was also incorporated into the government’s platform, allowing “the application and collection of passports and other government issued documents from a central location,” according to Mr Henfield.
The government has since opened Passport Offices on Exuma, Inagua, Long Island and Eleuthera. Two more Passport Offices will be opened in the coming weeks in Bimini and North Andros.
Mr Henfield said the consular division of his ministry also generated $837,540 during the budget year by legalising 4,967 documents.
“For this same period, the division issued 1,037 visas for a revenue of $173,240,” he said.
Comments
DDK 3 years, 6 months ago
Who IS this person? Which constituency does he represent?
professionalbahamian 3 years, 6 months ago
Very pleasing to see the fiscal transparency BUT the revenue declaration is just bragging about “double taxation” or so it seems - what does it cost the tax payer for the government to run the department - net revenue after salaries, rent, repatriations?
tribanon 3 years, 6 months ago
LMAO. Henfield needs to explain why we have many, many thousands more law breaking Haitian nationals in our country today then when he become minister of foreign affairs in May 2017.
Truth be told, since May 2017 Henfield has been working over-time making sure illegal immigrants get the documents and other papers they need to remain in The Bahamas. And the more wealthy in our country, who are benefitting the most from the enormous pool of low cost 'slave' labour that Henfield continues to create, knows this fact only too well.
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