By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Immigration Minister Brent Symonette yesterday said Marco City MP Greg Moss was “incorrect” when he argued that “undocumented Bahamians” face deportation and statelessness under the government’s new immigration restrictions.

Mr Symonette told The Tribune that according to the Haitian constitution, on the same day that children are born in The Bahamas to Haitian parents, they are entitled to report to their embassy to obtain a passport. However, he said, many Haitians choose not to take this route.

“The law of The Bahamas says they are entitled to apply (for citizenship),” Mr Symonette explained. “Key word entitled. Another thing is, no Haitian national subject to our laws in the Bahamas run the risk of becoming stateless.

“They can go on the day they are born and get a Haitian passport. Many of them just choose not to.”

He reiterated that he did not support the government’s newest restriction, which mandates that children of non-Bahamians have a student permit to attend school.

“What they are trying to do by September, it is too early. It is like they came out with a sledgehammer. There are other ways they can do it with a more reasoned end.

“What will happen is we will have a number of people uneducated. They could have started a long time ago. So the timeline is pushing it.”

He said while the government is fully within its right to change its policies, it did not make it morally or socially correct. The former FNM Cabinet minister said the move showed both the government and Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell’s “inconsiderate side”.

On Monday, Mr Moss criticised the government’s new immigration policy, arguing that persons of Haitian descent who he called “undocumented Bahamians” may be deported under the restrictions.

He insisted that children who are born in the Bahamas to foreign parents are entitled to be registered as citizens of the country when they become 18 years old.

He also said the notion that this segment of the population only had the constitutional right to apply for citizenship once they turned 18 was a misconception.

Mr Moss said just as he was committed to defending the rights of any other Bahamian citizen, he would also defend the rights of “undocumented Bahamians” who would be stateless if deported under the government’s new immigration policy.

Mr Moss said second, third and fourth generation Haitians in the Bahamas are not considered Haitian under that country’s constitution.