The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY General Ryan Pinder says the Davis administration plans to scrap the draft 111-page Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill 2018, saying while it addressed a number of different issues, the government is of the view that it was a better approach to tackle matters individually.

However, some of the concepts of the Minnis administration’s draft will be used in a new bill, Mr Pinder said yesterday. He also maintained his view that it was best to bring changes regarding Bahamian citizenship through legislation at Parliament, noting two previously failed referendums to change the constitution in this regard.

It is the government’s intention to bring legislation to allow both Bahamian men and women to pass on citizenship in any circumstance.

“Well, we have failed twice to change the constitution and it is an important element of equality of our people that they see themselves equal among each other and if that means doing it by legislation then that’s what it means,” Mr Pinder said when asked yesterday to respond to critics who are against changing the law by way of legislation in Parliament.

Mr Pinder further shrugged off the possibility of the government facing legal action from people who may see the changes as unconstitutional.

“If they take us to court, they take us to court. Everybody takes the government to court these days. (It) doesn’t mean they’re right. You clearly stated that the constitution provides the avenue to provide citizenship that is not covered within the constitution, which is what this is doing.”

The Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill 2018, drafted under former Law Reform Commissioner Dame Anita Allen features expanded grounds for the refusal of citizenship under the constitution, and registration and naturalisation under the law to include terrorism, human and drug trafficking, as well as gang-related activities. The draft has drawn commentary from both the political and civic arenas.

These issues are derived primarily from articles 7 and 9 of the constitution; but aren’t addressed therein or by later amendments.

The draft bill would have granted individuals in both these categories — born outside of The Bahamas to a Bahamian mother and born inside The Bahamas to two non-Bahamian parents — the “right of abode” or the right to live in The Bahamas while a minor, up to the age of 18.

Asked if the government intended to keep this draft, amend it or create a new bill, Mr Pinder said: “There’s going to be a new bill.

“Now some of the concepts in that bill will be utilised but if you would have seen that bill I don’t know if you saw it. It was 111 pages long and addressed a number of different issues and so we think a better approach is to do an issue-by-issue approach rather than what we would have seen in the bill.”

He would not respond to a question on whether he would support a “right to abode” provision for people who are stateless or those born in the country to foreign parents, saying this was a matter for Cabinet.

Currently, a Bahamian woman married to a foreign spouse cannot automatically pass on citizenship to children born abroad, while Bahamian men who have children with foreign women out of marriage cannot automatically pass on citizenship to their children, even if they are born in The Bahamas.

In 2016, a referendum on these issues and others concerning the ability of Bahamians to pass on their citizenship to children and spouses was rejected by voters.

Similarly in 2002, under the Ingraham administration, a referendum of this kind also failed.

The attorney general also suggested a draft bill to regulate the cannabis industry under the former government would be canned.

“If we thought the one presented by the Minnis administration was the right one to present, we would have presented it,” he said when asked to speak on what is proposed to change between the former government’s bill and a new cannabis bill expected from this administration.