By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

PEOPLE born to foreign parents in The Bahamas but who fail to apply for citizenship by age 19 as allowed by law will only be granted permanent residency with a right to work, Immigration Minister Brent Symonette, pictured, announced yesterday.

“So let’s make sure we have a distinction, persons born in The Bahamas, lived here all their lives, applied between 18 and 19 will be considered under the constitutional entitlement for citizenship as to whether or not they are entitled citizenship,” he said while foreshadowing proposed changes to Immigration law to come this year.

“Those who do not apply in time will be considered and if applicable will be granted permanent residency with the right to work. There are obviously other aspects and rules that apply in terms of length of stay and record and so on so forth.”

Currently the constitution says that people born in The Bahamas to non-Bahamian parents may apply for Bahamian citizenship between their 18th and 19th birthday.

The addition of a specific designation such as permanent residency if this is not done would be a new addition to law.

Mr Symonette said issues relating to children born outside of the country to Bahamian women married to foreign men, and children born to single Bahamian men will also need to be addressed.

Insisting impending amendments to the Immigration Act have nothing to do with any ongoing case in the court, Mr Symonette said the changes are needed largely because the laws have not changed much since 1973, the Bahamas’ year of independence.

He did not mention the ongoing Jean Rony Jean-Charles matter, which is now before the Court of Appeal. However, Mr Jean-Charles’ situation falls into the minister’s description of persons who will not be granted citizenship once the immigration laws are amended.

“What we need to do now, Mr Speaker, is look at the law as it exists and the government is committed to filling the office of law reform commissioner and will shortly be appointing a person to hold that office. That is obviously in the Office of the Attorney General and will be as the name attributes looking at law reform, so immigration will be one of those issues (and) financial services might be another as we move forward,” he said earlier in his presentation to the House of Assembly.

“So I will foreshadow today there will be amendments to the immigration rules as we go forth.

“This is a discussion and I have mentioned it on the floor many times. It is time to have this discussion, which is not reactionary to lawsuits that are happening over there. It’s something I’ve been foreshadowing for a long time because the immigration rules in our country started with independence essentially in 1973 and have not been drastically overhauled in the 40-odd years since independence.

“There are some drafts currently before Cabinet that we are looking at dealing with the whole question of harbouring of illegal immigrants. There is the whole question of increasing the fines and like I said these are basically before Cabinet, but I do them by way of foreshadowing what may happen. The question of increasing offences for harbouring /employing persons who are here illegally and also dealing with the whole question of repatriation and so forth, so there will be changes to the Immigration Act and we hope to discuss those in Cabinet and if agreed to they will be laid before Parliament in short order.”

Regarding repatriations, Mr Symonette said these have increased during this Free National Movement’s term in office.

These are mostly regarding repatriations of undocumented persons with no legitimate claim to immigration status in the Bahamas and the regulation of immigration status to non-Bahamian with legitimate claims.

He also said the numbers of Haitian immigrants repatriated between 1992 and 2002 and between 2007 and 2012 were demonstratively high.

For this year alone there have been 571 Haitians sent back to their homes.

In 2017 there were 5,468 repatriations, the majority of these migrants were also from Haiti with 4393 sent home.

In addition, Mr Symonette said fees will increase. He did not roll out the full slate of fee changes but said work permit fees will increase from $1,000 to $2,000 and penalties for harbouring illegals are also expected to become more stringent.