The Tribune

By JADE RUSSELL 

Tribune Staff Reporter 

jrussell@tribunemedia.net

THE Supreme Court has awarded $575,000 in damages to a 29-year-old woman after the Department of Immigration took six years to address her application for Bahamian citizenship.

Dahene Nonord, whose parents are haitian citizens and legal residents of The Bahamas, was initially granted a Certificate of Identity on April 4, 2011, which expired in April 2016. She applied for Bahamian citizenship on September 16, 2013, under Article 7 of The Bahamas constitution. Throughout the application process, she provided the requested documents, was interviewed, and was informed by an immigration officer that she would be contacted later about an oath of allegiance recital date.

Starting in 2014, Ms Nonord consistently followed up with the Immigration Department to confirm her recital date but never received answers. On October 10, 2017, she was informed that her file could not be found.

After six years, she was finally registered as a Bahamian citizen in 2019. Her citizenship was granted while she was pursuing legal action against the director of immigration and the board of immigration for refusing to consider, determine, or grant her citizenship application in a reasonable time.

Although she eventually gained citizenship, Ms Nonord endured significant trauma during the six years without registration.

In an affidavit, she described the abuse she suffered. On December 3, 2014, after being unable to show resident documents, immigration officers handcuffed, slapped, dragged, verbally abused, and detained her at the Carmichael Road Detention Center until her mother brought her Certificate of Identity documents for her release.

A female officer in charge of the detention centre claimed Ms Nonord bit her, an accusation Ms Nonord denied. The officer in charge later instructed other female officers to document the incident to prevent Ms Nonord from getting citizenship.

Ms Nonord reported several instances of physical abuse by immigration officers at the detention centre. At one point, she was jailed and charged in the Magistrate’s Court after immigration officers claimed she had bitten their fingers, leading to charges of obstruction and assault. She pleaded not guilty and was granted bail.

Ms Nonord’s lawyers filed a writ in March 2015 for assault and battery, false imprisonment, and breach of her constitutional rights. They said she suffered mentally, living in constant fear of being deported to Haiti, a country she had never visited.

The turmoil the Immigration Department caused prevented Ms Nonord from working, travelling, having a bank account, or receiving a higher education.

Ms Nonord sought aggravated, punitive, and exemplary damages against the director of immigration and the board of immigration for assault and battery, false imprisonment, and breach of her constitutional rights. She sought $1m.

Ultimately, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bowe Darville declared that the director and the board breached the constitution in processing Ms Nonord’s application and acted recklessly in refusing to determine her application within a reasonable time.

Ms Nonord was awarded $125,000 for the constitutional breach of Article 17 (1), $125,000 for the breach of Article 26 (2), $150,000 for misfeasance, $100,000 in exemplary damages, and $75,000 in aggravated damages, totalling $575,000.