The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Tribune Staff Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

A UNITED Nations representative has suggested overhauling certain immigration procedures in an effort to cut back on instances of statelessness among Haitian nationals in the country. 

Describing the Bahamas as very generous to persons who are not considered as nationals to any state, Vincent Cochetel, UN High Commissioner for Refugees’ Regional Representative (UNHCR) to the US and the Caribbean told the Constitutional Reform Commission that the unpredictable nature of applications for citizenship to the Bahamas needs attention.

“You need to have a process,” Mr Cochetel said, “that is a bit more predictable. The current process is very discretionary and people have no idea as to where their request stands, when they will get a reply (and) there is no time limit.

“The minister in the case of declarations of citizenship may disregard the advice of the committee that reviews the decision of deprivation of citizenship. So there is no real appeal mechanism.

“(As a stateless person) you don’t exist. You don’t have a right to have a right. I have met some of these people in your country and in many other countries in the Caribbean region and it is very difficult to live without the right to exist.

“This country is very generous (in that) you can access schools. You can access medical services. But when it comes to basic civil rights people are denied those rights because they don’t exist.”

He said flaws with Haiti’s record keeping practices have also presented challenges not only in the Bahamas, but in other countries around the world since around 40 per cent of their children have not been registered at birth or have documents to validate their citizenship.

“They could have a claim to citizenship in Haiti practically today as we speak (but) it is difficult for the majority of them to be able to establish that if the parents are not able to produce a birth certificate. The Haitian embassy is aware of the problem.

“It is something that we will be asking your government tomorrow to help us with our efforts to get the Haitian government to quickly move in this change in legislation.”

Persons facing this dilemma are more likely to become stateless for a period especially since applying to become a Bahamian requires renouncing Haitian citizenship.

“They renounce, then they apply for Bahamian citizenship. Then they wait for a response and the response is not predictable. There is no guarantee that they will get Bahamian citizenship and sometimes it takes years.

Mr Cochetel believes that an overhaul of the country’s guiding principles should not only focus on how the Bahamas relates to gender inequality but, the transmission of nationality from a Bahamian spouse to her child if the child is born abroad and the transmission of nationality from the Bahamian woman to a spouse if the spouse has no nationality.