No Immigration Crisis after COI Leader takes Government to task

By Sherrica Thompson

Staff Writer

#TheBahamas, October 28, 2022 – “There is no crisis in immigration and no plan to change the laws on citizenship.”

That is the response that the Foreign Affairs Minister of the Bahamas, Fred Mitchell, had for the draft bill to the Bahamas Nationality Act that was proposed by the leader of the Coalition of Independents (COI) Lincoln Bain last week.

On the other hand, Minister of Labour and Immigration Keith Bell on Friday October 21 told the media that the amendment was in the process of being sent to the office of the Attorney General for review.

“As you would appreciate any person in the Bahamas, […] has the right to actually bring or ask their member of parliament to consider a matter of public importance, significance and in doing that, the appropriate thing to do would be to take it to the office of the Attorney General, and so once I get feedback from the Office of the Attorney General then we would consider it,” Bell said.

Bell disclosed that it is not the first time such a bill has been proposed, however, he did not state if it is something that the Bahamian government would consider.

The amendments suggested by Bain seek to ban children born to irregular migrants from applying for citizenship in the Bahamas.

The Bahamas has been facing the issue of irregular migration for quite some time. Since 2022 the Royal Bahamas Defence Force has seen a significant increase in irregular migration, primarily from the Republic of Haiti and Cuba, in comparison to 2021 and 2020.

Between January and August 2022, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) apprehended 2,250 migrants.