The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said until legislators amend the Bahamas Nationality Act, people affected by discriminatory citizenship laws should apply to the minister of immigration for relief.

His comment to reporters came after Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said his administration is committed to equalising citizenship access for men and women, though he gave no timeline.

During the opening ceremony for Diplomatic Week at Baha Mar yesterday, Mr Davis said: “Legislative and police reforms have been initiated to eliminate inequality in the transmission of citizenship while addressing other citizenship issues, including granting citizenship to children born abroad to married Bahamian women and their foreign husbands.”

Mr Mitchell noted that Attorney General Ryan Pinder has talked about amending citizenship laws.

He then offered what he said was a practical solution to the problem.

 “When we were in office last time, I was the immigration minister and we announced,“ as a policy of immigration matters, “that women whose children were born in those circumstances could utilise section six of the Bahamas Nationality Act, which says that the minister may grant citizenship to any minor. Without qualification, the minister can grant citizenship to any minor.”

 “If you apply under that provision, and you are a Bahamian woman married to a foreign man (and) the child is born outside The Bahamas, and therefore the child is not Bahamian at birth, the thing to do as soon as the child is born, have the child registered as a Bahamian citizen under section six, and you’ll get it, no problem.

 “Do it straight away. And why did they do it straight away and as a minor is because many times, when you turn 18, you’re required to renounce the citizenship of origin, and this presents a problem for people born in the United States, Canada, or the UK or one of these European countries that, you know, you’d like to hold on to their citizenship.

 “And so in order to avoid having to renounce, the better thing to do is to have the child registered as a minor under section six, no issue, so you keep both the citizenships.”