The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

IMMIGRATION and Labour Minister Keith Bell commended the 48 officers at the Department of Immigration in Grand Bahama who received their promotions in rank on Thursday.

He stressed that the duty of immigration officers is critical to protecting the country’s sovereignty.

“I want to say well done,” Minister Bell said. “You are being promoted not for what you have done, but for what you are going to do.

“Your job is perhaps the most important in all of the law enforcement agencies - you are challenged with the awesome responsibility of not only protecting our sovereignty as a nation, but you are also charged with protecting our borders and with ensuring our laws, as it relates to citizenship, are protected and enforced,” he said.

The Bahamas Immigration Promotions, Confirmations and Recognition ceremony was held at the Bahamas Union of Teachers Hall in Freeport. Following the ceremony, 14 persons were sworn-in as Bahamian citizens.

Minister Bell noted that all Bahamian citizens have a responsibility, not only immigration officers, to protect the sovereignty of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas.

Minister of Social Services and Urban Development Obie Wilchcombe said that immigration officers are not appreciated, despite the significant role they play in protecting the country.

“We have witnessed the endurance, perseverance and dedication – that is what represents all you have endured over the last several years and never once compromising your commitment to our country.

“You are the true heroes and heroines of our nation because in spite of the lack of appreciation, it did not cause you to neglect your responsibilities, you helped protect our nation,” Mr Wilchcombe told immigration officers.

He commended Minister Bell for ensuring that immigration officers got the long-awaited promotions they deserved. “Minister Keith Bell came and took office and he immediately determined that he would not allow any day to go by without seeking to correct the wrong of all these many years,” Mr Wilchcombe said.

“As members of the state you have rights, and the minister took a position and fought for it; and he is not finished yet because you have become a priority.

“I heard him today say you are number one in terms of protecting our nation. The Customs, Immigration, and Police, all of you collectively have different responsibilities, but you protect our borders.”

Mr Wilchcombe recalled the time in 1967 when the Immigration Department did not exist in Freeport.

“Many of you in this group could sit here where you are sitting today, particularly not here in Grand Bahama. Many of you will not appreciate that in 1967 the immigration department did not exist here in Freeport. We were a country headed toward Independence, but you were not a part of it.”

Minister Wilchcombe said that it was the PLP that…called for the establishment of immigration in Freeport.

“You had laws here where you had to be of European stock stated in the law to even be here in Freeport and GB. It is something we endured for many years and then it changed for the betterment of our people, and so today you sit at a place where you represent change,” he explained.

Mr Wilchcombe said The Bahamas is still in the development stage. “We are still not where we want to be; we still have to invest more into our people who are the true national treasures of our nation.”

He said that immigration officers put their lives at risk to protect the country’s borders. “Every day you discovered new challenges,” he said.