AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

BACKLOGS to obtain a Haitian passport have been cleared, according to Haitian Ambassador Jean Victor Geneus, who yesterday insisted that lengthy waiting times for persons applying in the Bahamas had been reduced to four weeks.

Acknowledging that a stalled process may have discouraged persons from obtaining the document, Mr Geneus also urged Haitian parents to seek help from the embassy if they experience any difficulty accessing public services - specifically education and health care - due to insufficient documentation.

He was responding to the accounts published in The Nassau Guardian from two parents, who claimed that they were unable to register their children in public school due to the new immigration policy that mandates all foreign students provide documentation in the form of a student permit or residency stamp.

Mr Geneus said his staff immediately searched its database to determine whether the persons included in the article had applied for a passport, or whether the embassy had received such a complaint - it had not.

“Immediately I asked a functionary of the embassy to run a search in our database,” he said.

“We did not find the name of such persons in our database. Second, it does not take six months to get a passport, I wonder if the parents were using a false name but we don’t have this person in our database.

“Before I came there was a problem, but since October of last year you can get your passport in three weeks or four weeks maximum.

“We don’t have a passport problem,” he added. “There is no backlog. The problem was at the embassy of Haiti in Washington where all the passports are processed. Sometimes the equipment breaks down and they have to bring in an engineer to make the necessary reparations, that’s all. Here at the embassy we don’t make passports we just transmit the information.”

Mr Geneus urged persons that have been denied services as a result of the new policy, to bring any supporting evidence that they can. He lamented that anecdotal reports were not enough to engender a response or action from the government.

“I always tell them that we need evidence,” he said. “As far as I know nobody came to the embassy to complain about this. The last time I spoke to someone from Freeport, I asked the person to bring the evidence because if the (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) persist and say that where is the evidence, I cannot tell them someone told me a kid was refused admission.

“Where is the evidence, that is what I need,” he said. “If they don’t come forward there is nothing we can do.”

Mr Geneus added that he has received confirmation from both Education Minister Jerome Fitzgerald, and Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson, that no child can be refused admission to school.