Immigration officials conducted road blocks in Eastern New Providence this morning, stopping some motorists and asking them to provide identification or proof of citizenship.
Officers also boarded buses and asked certain passengers to "show me your ID".
It appeared that officials were targeting persons of Haitian descent, according to one witness who said: "How could they just come and ask only some people to show IDs but no one else?"
On Facebook, some commentators said they were told having their drivers license was not sufficient identification.
This comes after National Security Minister Bernard Nottage said in September that "the time has come" for the country to consider the introduction of national ID card, considering the Bahamas¹ long-standing illegal migration problem.
At that time, Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said that the introduction of a national identity card would introduce "civil liberty implications".
It is unclear at this time whether or not today's road blocks reflect a change in immigration policy.
See tomorrow's Tribune for more details.
Comments
Honeybun 10 years, 4 months ago
Hmm OK so this means I have to travel with my passport, NIB card, driver's license, birth certificate and affidavit just to be on the safe side...oh yeah my parents birth certificate too.
spoitier 10 years, 4 months ago
A person should always have a picture ID with them, for varios reason
blackcat 10 years, 4 months ago
criminals are robbing you left and right, i dont want to tote my important documents like that each and everyday. glad they are doing something but just hope they go about it the right way and in a humane manner.
henny 10 years, 4 months ago
Only one piece of legal documentation should be sufficient except drivers license. Why are you overreacting and being sarcastic? It is time they had these immigration checks and should be done often. Too many illegals on the island. If you are legal and can prove your status you should have nothing to worry about.
ChangeNeeded 10 years, 4 months ago
If one piece of legal documentation except driver's license for most persons is their passport, do you expect persons to walk around with their passport because immigration officers will not accept a driver's license as a form of identification?
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 4 months ago
Also ignores the huge problem with fake papers. They need to get these problems at the root, before someone ends up on a bus or holding a gun to Brave Davis
bismark 10 years, 4 months ago
People stop complaining you want the illegall immigrant situation cleaned up,there you go,if you aren't illegall what is there to fear?Immigation is to Blame for this mess we find ourselves in,they need to weed out the corruption at immigration,too much illegall haitans are here simple,they dominate the illegall problem,they make it worse because wherever they go they devalue the place with their nasty habits they throw garbage,faeces any other waste they want to dispose of right at their doorsteps,they are just plain nasty and Bahamian people are tired of them,they don't contribute nothing to our economy,like I said before have you ever seen any of them in B.E.C paying light bill?or water & sewerage?my point .
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 4 months ago
Nastiness didn't arrive with Haitians...we have have plenty of it from Bahamians. Will this approach work? I dunno, but I wish they would address problems at the source...i.e. the persons being paid to bring them here...someone's driving around in a BM or hummer getting paid off the backs of these people.
leeza 10 years, 4 months ago
The story said stopping some motorist not all motorist and I believe the ones who were stopped were questionable. naw if you een sure you is Bahamian then I suggest carry round everything to satisfy the officers you is one of us but if you sure like me you need not carry anything around.
dollarsnsense 10 years, 4 months ago
Boy I tell you. Some of you lack knowledge or sympathy. Why not try to envision it as if you were in a foreign country and you had to be stopped EVERYWHERE you go to prove you're a legal citizen based on the way you look. How does someone 'look" illegal? Please describe that to me. Why stop vehicles for just Haitians? There are Illegal Americans, Cubans, Jamaicans, South Americans, Europeans and not all contribute positively to the Bahamian community. Bahamians need to get off their high damn horses and heads out of their a$$es. I hope some of you do not get offended if you are stopped and asked for ID because you "look" like a particular nationality. And to the one that said Haitians are nasty, there are a good number of Bahamians who just as nasty as anyone. Last I checked, we are the majority. I doubt to believe that the Haitians are the reason why certain neighbourhoods and littered with trash, bushes and lots filled with any type of waste or garbage you can think of. I guess its only Haitians that throw litter out the car window?
You know what yall sound like, The white people back in the 50's and how they treated the blacks in America. Then yall claim to be a Christian nation but yet despise another man because they are different. HYPOCRITES! Christ never taught that lesson.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 4 months ago
Amen. Sometimes people fail to see that black people can spout racist talk and attitudes as well
GQ 10 years, 4 months ago
The story is told of a Haitian who was caught in a family island some time last year and deported because he was assistng illegals coming into the island. Recently he arrived back on the island and said that he got a temporary visa in Haiti and flew into Nassau. This is how the system works.
Bahamas676 10 years, 4 months ago
Haitians gone be mad as hell lol!
SP 10 years, 4 months ago
PLP smoke and mirrors again!
Haitians have nothing to fear, just lay low for 2 or 3 days and everything will return to normal because the idiots do not have the backbone, manpower or facilities for a sustained anti-illegal migrant operation.
The fools sat idly by and watched the country being overrun with illegals and criminals for decades without making any attempt to prepare for what WE TOLD THEM REPEATEDLY WOULD HAPPEN.
Facts are:
1) The crime index will decrease should the IDIOTS ever figure out that a person here illegally routinely supports any number of illegal activities….Simply by virtue of them being illegal in the first instance.
2) Crime will be further greatly reduced if the revolving bail door were shut and those out on bail for serious offences were incarcerated……Watch the long rap sheet of the clowns that robbed the DPM.
The Bahamas is the only country in the world that allows bail for murder.
Make room at Fox Hill Prison for hardcore and repeat offenders by diverting $1M from tourisms' budget for the creation of a low security wood frame cell block at HMP for low risk offenders.
NOTHING WILL BE DONE!!
Greentea 10 years, 4 months ago
Tell the Prime Minister to divert that million he is putting towards that wasteful Mardi Gras in February to your low security block. It would be money well spent if you ask me.
positiveinput 10 years, 4 months ago
Why don't the government make it mandatory for each individual in the Bahamas to obtain an N.I.B number which when obtaining, their photo and finger print is taken an logged into a governments computer bank. By doing this upgrade a large percentage of problems could be easily addressed.
1. No need to travel with a document that could easily be a fraud because just from giving your N.I.B number, your picture and name would pop up.
and the list goes on what other problems could be fixed instead of introducing other options for just a trial basis
sansoucireader 10 years, 4 months ago
Got caught in this this morning taking my daughter to COB for a final exam. Since when do I, as a Bahamian, have to carry ID to show who I am? Was a law passed in Parliament that we were not told about? Until there is a law saying that I MUST carry government approved identification I'm not toting a bunch of paperwork with me just because someone can't pronounce my uncommon surname and my skin is light. What does a Bahamian look like anyway?!
croberts6969 10 years, 4 months ago
Everyone that was stopped should contact a lawyer for violation of your constitutional rights. You could win thousands of dollars in damages.
jellybean 10 years, 4 months ago
Ok I am a white Bahamian and my boyfriend is a black Bahamian. We were both stopped yesterday morning in two separate cars. The two cars behind me were also stopped. The immigration officers were very polite and accepted our drivers license as sufficient. The only issue I had with the whole thing was the traffic it caused.
The_Oracle 10 years, 4 months ago
Heil ! your papers please.......... The most sensible Plan from the top can become the most horrible practice at the street level, as officer discretion plays a major role in how these things are conducted, but if there is no capacity for discretion, officer by officer? A Police State ensues. Another reason to stay locked up in your homes with Bars on the windows and doors. The Haitians already have a name for it, they call it the "Ton Ton Macoute"
Reader 10 years, 4 months ago
I had to laugh, I'm a white Bahamian and was stopped the other morning and asked for ID. I looked at the Immagration officer and in my best Bahamian accent said, "Yinna don't know I's a Bahamian" He laughed and waved me through. Who needs ID, just a good Bahamian accent.
jackbnimble 10 years, 4 months ago
Lol. Hilarious!
positiveinput 10 years, 4 months ago
One has to laugh at some requirements. Just the other day I went to cash a check using my passport as identification. The teller then asked if I had an account with the bank, which I replied no, so she said I would need an additional identification to accompany the passport like a N.I.B. card or drivers license. Question, wouldn't the passport had been used to acquire any other documents and how is the N.I.B. card useful with no picture???
HarryBlack 10 years, 4 months ago
Because of fraud, a request for two forms of identification is standard in the circumstances.
ThisIsOurs 10 years, 4 months ago
Better to go to a webshop where they don't care how you made your money. Hassle free money transfer
jackbnimble 10 years, 4 months ago
We bitch and complain that too many illegals are here and then when the Immigration Department appears to be doing something about it, we complain. Which is it? Do we want them caught and deported or do we want them to stay? Frankly I don't mind being inconvenienced (and I was) for an hour or more if it means that a couple hundred are caught. Like most Bahamians I want them gone!
TalRussell 10 years, 4 months ago
Comrades aren't you tired cause to talk the truth I done become exhausted. I'm tired of the same people who call-out for even more brute policeman's force are the same people who get annoyed if a policeman's asked see your ID. Next time best be careful what you be asking the Commish of da policeman's be doing. "What goes around comes around, eventually."
B_I_D___ 10 years, 4 months ago
I am a Bahamian Citizen. TECHNICALLY I don't need to carry around ANY form of ID...if I get pulled over for a traffic violation, I have 24 hours to present my drivers license to the necessary police station...and that's just my driver license. So if I do not carry that around, I will most definitely NOT be carrying around my passport, or proof of citizenship papers, so I get pulled over, have no ID and no proof of residency, and I am going to get hauled off to the detention centre...yeah, I have a problem with that. I understand what they are TRYING to do, round up some illegals, but it is a very slippery slope.
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