By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Davis administration has finalised its genetic testing protocols for people affected by last year’s landmark Privy Council ruling and will soon release more details about the procedures, Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville said on Friday.

Some people affected by the ruling have been anxiously waiting for the government to say what they must do to get their Bahamian passport. 

Dr Darville had previously told reporters the protocols would be released before the end of 2023, but that never happened.

He said on Friday that finalising the protocols took longer than expected because officials had been grappling with how to prevent DNA fraud.

“There’s no system in the world that’s soundproof, but we believe we have something that is very academic,” he said. “It’s very safe, and we believe that it can substantiate the court order.” 

Last May, the Privy Council affirmed that people born out of wedlock to Bahamian men are Bahamians at birth regardless of their mother’s nationality.

However, while many of these people have since obtained passports, those whose father is not identified on their birth certificates remain in limbo. 

Dr Darville said people who fall in the latter category will first have to present samples to a lab registered under the Ministry of Health.

He said their samples would be forwarded “to one of the reputable labs in the United States, and the results would come back which will confirm within 99.5 per cent the paternity testing for that particular case.”

“It’s a very structured programme,” he added. “From my understanding, there will be a notary public. The lab would have to be registered, full documentation and the information will be passed on to the Passport Office for determination of paternity.”

 Regarding those with dead fathers, Dr Darville said DNA samples can be taken from a close paternal relative.

 “It can be a sibling, an uncle or a relative who can substantiate genetic connectivity,” he said. “It can be done many ways, not just with the father who’s passed on. It can be done with his brother, his sister. It can be done with an uncle, and the list goes on and on, but there’s ways DNA can be confirmed outside of the father giving the sample.” 

 Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis has said that addressing citizenship inequalities is a priority for his administration this year.

 However, he gave no timeline on when legislation concerning this will be brought to Parliament.

 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.