By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

ATTORNEY Fred Smith believes the landmark Supreme Court ruling on Bahamas-born deportee Jean Rony Jean-Charles has now paved the way for people born in the Bahamas to non-nationals to seek protection from unlawful expulsion.

Mr Smith called on the government to immediately begin the process of repatriating to the Bahamas the “thousands” of persons born in the Bahamas who have been unconstitutionally expelled.

However, the outspoken QC told The Tribune he had little faith in the government’s intent to adhere to legal precedent set by Supreme Court judgments given its track record.

Mr Smith said the failure of successive governments to apply the principles espoused by the courts across a wide cross-section of national issues has severely hampered the development of good governance.

“There is an unfortunate and long history of the government not respecting judgments issued by the Supreme Court,” he said.

“Secondly there is a further issue, and that is if they do respect the ruling of the court, they don’t apply it to other similar cases as precedent setting and so what it means is that even though judgements in the Supreme Court may affect hundreds if not thousands of people or categories, the refusal of the government to apply the principles enunciated by the court generally has really hampered the development of good governance in the Bahamas.

“This has repeatedly occurred in the environmental and regulatory fields, it’s happened in the police brutality cases that I’ve done, and it has regularly occurred over decades with the successful judgments upholding the rights of licensees under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement. I hope, however, that this government will be different.

“I say that because Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis at his inauguration said that his government would be different and would respect and uphold the rule of law.”

Attorney General Carl Bethel yesterday confirmed the government plans to “fully appeal” Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hilton’s ruling on Tuesday, which ordered the government to immediately issue a travel document for Mr Jean-Charles and reimburse him for his travel back to the country, declaring that his rights under the Constitution have been breached.

Justice Hilton said that Mr Jean-Charles, upon making an application, must be issued legal status no later than 60 days after his return.

Yesterday, former Minister of Immigration Fred Mitchell called for the government to appeal the judgment up to the highest level, the Privy Council.

In a statement yesterday, Mr Mitchell advised the current decision should be stayed pending appeal.

“This is unprecedented,” Mr Smith continued.

“The Supreme Court has paved the way for so many people who were born in the Bahamas to now move the Supreme Court under the Constitution to protect their constitutional right not to have been unlawfully expelled. This is a first in Bahamian jurisprudence and because it applies to a huge category of persons, it is very important for this government to demonstrate that it is respecting the rule of law, and to itself embark upon an exercise of repatriating to the Bahamas the thousands of citizens-in-waiting born in the Bahamas that have over the decades been expelled unconstitutionally.”  

Mr Smith added: “A responsible and law-abiding government should not have to wait for people to sue them to do the right thing. And the right thing here is to bring back people born in the Bahamas so that they can claim their rightful birthright.”

‘Overdue’

Weighing in on the Supreme Court judgment yesterday, former Minister of National Security, with responsibility for Immigration, Loftus Roker noted that “time been up long time” for the government to systematically address immigration challenges.

“If you look at the shanty town thing,” he said, “all of that is part of it. We only look at things when it confront us right in our face, as soon as it quiets down you forget it and this applies to all of us (successive administrations). They all do the same thing, they only look at it when they come face to face with it. We’ve been independent now for what over 40 years. Our Constitution was in existence for over that and we haven’t found a way to systematically deal with immigration.

“What we have now is a statement was made by the government that by the 31st of December (2017), all these illegal immigrants should leave the Bahamas, this is now the last day in January. And nobody told us what happen. Are they leaving? This is the end of January, that’s our problem, we forget that now and we moving on to something else. 

“We move on to this fella (Mr Jean-Charles), I don’t know whether he is a Bahamian or not or anything like that.”

Mr Roker pointed to the high potential for fraud in the current process to obtain an affidavit as it related to establishing a person was born in the Bahamas.

Mr Jean-Charles was born at the Princess Margaret Hospital, according to an affidavit supporting his habeas corpus application, which also contained a copy of his birth certificate.

Minister of Immigration Brent Symonette also brought up the issue of fraudulent documentation yesterday, noting Mr Jean-Charles’ case will bring the longstanding issue of fraudulent documentation to the forefront.

However, Mr Symonette made it clear that he was not seeking to establish the fraud issue as relevant to Mr Jean-Charles’ matter, or speaking directly to his case because he had not yet reviewed the matter fully.

“Anybody can go and swear an affidavit,” Mr Roker said, “don’t blame the JP. We knew this 20 years ago, that’s the problem.

“Part of my problem is the fact that I never had a detention centre when I was there, I went to court with you and I carry you up to Fox Hill and then I deport you. Once you start ignoring the law you gonna get yourself in trouble.”

He added: “The time been up long time, and you’re gonna find more people. If this fella get away with that.”