The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said yesterday he discussed this country’s new immigration policy with Haitian Foreign Minister Duly Brutus during a recent meeting on the sidelines of a CARICOM summit in Havana, Cuba.

“I had a meeting between myself and the Haitian foreign minister on the issue of the new administrative procedures that have been put in place since the first of November,” he said. “The focus of the Haitian government has been the ability to produce passports for those people who wish to apply for them. He indicated that at the earliest opportunity we should expect very shortly that the minister responsible for passports and the foreign minister may visit The Bahamas just to see for themselves what the situation is on the ground.

“Secondly, they have undertaken to make some changes so that they can meet any demand for passports. Also, the question of price came up because I’m told that in the Dominican Republic the passports are quite a reasonable rate and I gather passports here are fairly expensive so they are looking at the price point of the passports.”

Last month, in an interview with The Tribune, Mr Brutus said bilateral meetings with the Bahamas government over its new immigration policy was a top priority as Haiti does not have the capacity to meet regularisation demands.

He called for the Bahamas government to meet the International Organisation for Migration and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees over the new regulations, adding that the primary concern was the treatment of children born in the Bahamas to Haitian parents.

“We do not have the service now for The Bahamas,” Mr Brutus said, responding to questions about the government’s readiness to process the increased demand for Haitian passports. “We did it for the Dominican Republic, probably we will be forced to do the same with The Bahamas. That’s why we need to go (to The Bahamas) very fast.”

Several new immigration policies were implemented on November 1; however, the mandate that everyone living in the Bahamas must have a passport of their nationality was contentious.

Mr Mitchell announced the measures in the House of Assembly on September 17.

At the time, he said certificates of identity issued to people born to foreign parents legally residing in the Bahamas will not be renewed; instead a passport of their nationality with a resident stamp will be required.

While the Bahamas government has maintained that the new policy is non-discriminatory, human rights groups have severely criticised the move as it directly affects the largely undocumented community of Haitian migrants – many of whom were born in the Bahamas.