Wednesday, December 27, 2023
By JADE RUSSELL
Tribune Staff Reporter
jrussell@tribunemedia.net
MANY would welcome giving citizenship to a Harvard-educated scholar like Dr April Finlayson, but seven months after the Privy Council ruled that people like her are citizens at birth, she still can’t get a Bahamian passport and limits her visits to The Bahamas to avoid being warned again that she overstayed her time in the country of her birth.
Since the Privy Council affirmed in May that people born out of wedlock to Bahamian men are Bahamians at birth regardless of their mother’s nationality, hundreds have had their passport applications approved.
People such as Dr Finlayson are in limbo because their father’s name is not on their birth certificate, and affidavits are not accepted as proof of paternity. The Davis administration said it will require DNA tests in such instances.
Attorney General Ryan Pinder said in June 2022 that the administration would push legislation allowing Bahamian men and women to pass citizenship in all circumstances. He later said this would happen after the Privy Council ruled on the status of children born out of wedlock to Bahamian men.
Despite the pledges, meaningful work from the government on the protocol for people like Dr Finlayson appeared only to begin after the Privy Council delivered its ruling this year.
Mr Pinder reiterated last month that officials are working on legislation to address citizenship inequalities. People born outside The Bahamas to a Bahamian mother and foreign father are not automatically citizens, and Bahamian women do not have the same rights as men to get citizenship for their foreign spouse.
Health Minister Dr Michael Darville told reporters in October that he hoped DNA testing protocols would be finalised by the end of this year, but nothing has yet been announced. He previously said officials must find ways to prevent DNA fraud.
The wait has muted the excitement Dr Finlayson and others felt when the highest court affirmed the landmark citizenship ruling.
Dr Finlayson, 37, told The Tribune in May that she had applied five times for a passport before leaving the country, moving to the United States after being excluded from the privileges of being a Bahamian.
She said yesterday she went to the Passport Office in September and was told she was ineligible for a passport.
She has been trying to get a Bahamian passport since she was 15. Before her recent visit to the Passport Office, she went through the process of compiling her “original documentation”, such as hospital and school letters.
“When you put it all together, it’s like a three-week process,” she said yesterday. “When I went through all of that just to find out yet again I’m still not eligible, it was frustrating.”
She said while visiting her family in New Providence for this year’s holiday season, she was anxious about whether an immigration officer would interrogate her.
She recalled a brief visit in 2022, where an officer warned her that she previously overstayed by several days. She noted she could only stay in the country for six months, and officers often assume she denounced her Bahamian citizenship and now holds American citizenship.
“The hassle of even visiting sometimes is a lot,” she said, adding that the system marginalises people like her.
“It was very annoying to have someone like, highlight two days, three days, however many days that they claimed I overstayed when you can see it says born in The Bahamas.”
“I need to be able to come in and out of The Bahamas comfortably because this is where my family is, and this is where I was raised.”
“I feel as though there has not been consideration for the fact that people do not choose how they get here,” said Dr Finlayson, an assistant lecturer at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. “Our humanity is not taken into consideration, like the way it affects our lives on a day-to-day basis.”
Comments
stillwaters says...
She will get her Bahamian passport easily, she just needs her Bahamian father to go do the DNA test with her. That sounds like the only thing holding this up. Sounds like she can travel freely with her American citizenship though.
Posted 27 December 2023, 8:58 a.m. Suggest removal
IslandWarrior says...
Regrettably, Dr. Finlayson's (April's) father, who was a Bahamian national, has passed away. So DNA testing makes this a more complex challenge, however, given the reputation of the Bahamas for being corrupt and unjust towards its citizens. There is a possibility that someone within the system may be interfering in the "Finlayson Family Affairs" and causing trouble.
Posted 27 December 2023, 11:18 a.m. Suggest removal
stillwaters says...
Can't DNA testing be done between siblings? If he has other children...... maybe she can do it that way?
Posted 27 December 2023, 11:26 a.m. Suggest removal
realitycheck242 says...
Those in the DNA testing business in the Bahamas needs to get up to date because many cold cases in the USA are being solved from decades ago by DNA testing.
Posted 27 December 2023, 3:09 p.m. Suggest removal
birdiestrachan says...
Big deal it makes a good news story but it is not factual she could have applied at 18 without the man who did not sign
Posted 27 December 2023, 12:05 p.m. Suggest removal
Bobsyeruncle says...
Not as straightforward as you think Birdie. My son applied when he was 18, had his interview, submitted all the correct paperwork etc. He is now 30 and still hasn't got his citizenship. Every time he contacts immigration they say they will check his application status and get back to him, but they never call back. We suspect his application has been 'lost' somewhere in the immigration jungle, with the constant churn of 'preferred political party affiliates' that review and approve applications.
Posted 27 December 2023, 4:48 p.m. Suggest removal
TalRussell says...
**Flat out, I don't recall having before, read such a strange story?** --- Being that regardless of which of the two colours T-Shirts, holds political power, --- The Doctor Daughter **with the political reach, --- Stretching's** over her 37 years ---- Of Garet 'Tiger' Finlayson --- Should've, long ago -- Taken a political solution to Her taken Her Oath of Bahamian Citizenship. --- Yes?
Posted 27 December 2023, 6:27 p.m. Suggest removal
stillwaters says...
Wait...is this one of those ' children of the sweetheart' stories?
Posted 28 December 2023, 10:38 a.m. Suggest removal
Porcupine says...
Say all you want, but it is still sad.
And we all know this ain't the only sad story, is it?
Posted 29 December 2023, 7:12 a.m. Suggest removal
ExposedU2C says...
Doofus AG Pinder wants to tear up the Constitution of The Bahamas by having you believe the government as opposed to the Bahamian people have the final word in determining who is entitled to receive Bahamian citizenship.
Let's not forget that Perry "Vomit" Christie tried to make changes to the citizenship provisions of our Constitution through a national referendum which the Bahamian people rejected. On learning the majority vote under the national referendum was against all of the major changes proposed, the Vomit led PLP government refused to honour the outcome of the referendum and instead started calling the duly held national referendum a mere survey of the sentiment of the Bahamian people. Vomit found out the hard way that most Bahamians rightfully did not trust the motives and objectives of the government. Bahamians demonstrated their great distrust by either voting no the proposed changes or not bothering to vote at all
Since then, the PLP government has become even more corrupt wishes to simply tear up the Constitution. Numbskull Pinder just can't understand that it is the Bahamian people and not the government (or the privy council for that matter) who have the exclusive right to determine who is entitled to receive Bahamian citizenship. It is a matter for the Bahamian people to determine by way of a duly held national referendum to effect changes to the citizenship provisions of the Constitution of The Bahamas.
Bottomline: The grant of Bahamian citizenship should never be made subject to political patronage and should remain exclusively determined by the intended meaning of the citizenship provisions of our Constitution at the time it was adopted by our country.
Posted 29 December 2023, 10:16 a.m. Suggest removal
ExposedU2C says...
P.S. The intellectually dishonest in the PLP hierarchy, like Ruby Nottage and Sean McWeeney, have been trying for decades to twist the intended meaning of the citizenship provisions of The Bahamas Constitution in their quest to have the provisions changed to fit the "new" PLP political agenda that is not in the best interest of the vast majority of Bahamians. Thank heavens most Bahamians are not as stupid as they would like to think and are well aware of what is going on here.
Posted 29 December 2023, 10:48 a.m. Suggest removal
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