The Tribune

A JAMAICAN woman has alleged that she and her six-year-old daughter spent two nights at a safe house for illegal immigrants in sub-par conditions after being detained at the Lynden Pindling International Airport on Sunday.

According to a report published on the Jamaica Star website, the 23-year-old woman alleged that she and her daughter slept on “torn dirty mattresses” and compared the “nasty” safe house to a prison. She also alleged that they were not given water after 6pm.

The article alleges that the mother, Sasha-Gaye Myers, travelled with her daughter to Nassau to sort out the child’s identification card. Ms Myers said the child was born in the Bahamas.

“My daughter was born over there and I was given an identification certificate for her. I thought it was a passport because she has travelled on it like three times already back and forth from The Bahamas,” the mother told the Jamaica Star.

“Now it is expired and when I spoke to the Bahamian Consulate in Jamaica they told me that they don’t issue identification cards here, nor passports and I would have to go there to get it renewed,” she said.

“Upon arriving at Nassau, I was told that my daughter is not a Bahamian, she is a Jamaican and they will not allow her in on the expired book.

“They say that I am a foreigner and the baby takes the nationality of the mother,” she added.

“They said that I already missed the flight that would return to Jamaica on Sunday, and they would have to take me to a safe house for women and children,” she told the Jamaican publication.

“They gave me a few clothing items and took away everything. My phone, my passport, my suitcase, everything. Just imagine,” she said.

According to the article, the mother and her daughter were fed meals of cornmeal, mackerel, white rice, corned beef and macaroni. She said they were only given water to drink but nothing after 6pm.

According to the report, the two returned to Jamaica on Tuesday. It is claimed the mother has retained a lawyer and has said she will not return to The Bahamas.

When contacted last night, Immigration Director William Pratt said the woman has not made a formal complaint with authorities about her allegations, so he could not respond directly to her claims about the safe house.

However, he said representatives from the Department of Social Services, immigration and defence force officers are present at the safe house explaining that the woman could have made a complaint with an official if she felt mistreated.

He suggested the mother was upset because she felt her child was entitled to be allowed in The Bahamas.

“She never made a complaint to me, Social Services works at the safe house, immigration and the defence force are there, no complaint was made to us.”

He added: “The child is not a Bahamian citizen, the child may be born in the Bahamas but under our Constitution the child takes the nationality of the mother.”

He added that if the child had a valid document or passport, immigration officers would have landed her.

In 2014, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stopped issuing certificates of identity to persons born here to non-Bahamian parents.

Mr Pratt questioned why Ms Myers did not get a Jamaican passport for her child, instead of trying to get Bahamian identification.

“We are not saying the child is not entitled to anything, the child is entitled to be registered as a citizen once she turns 18.

“If she was living here, the child would be entitled to a belonger’s permit - if she is living overseas, then why not get a Jamaican document?”