THE HAITIAN PASTORS MEET THE PM

The room at the National Training Agency on Gladstone Road was pretty much full.  That night Wednesday 29 March 2023, the Minister for Immigration Keith Bell brought together the leaders of the Haitian community, mainly church leaders to speak about the current situation with regard to immigration including the decision on the removal of shanty towns and the  issues of granting citizenship and the enforcement of the immigration laws.  The country is in one of these frenzies again where the hatred of Haitians is at its height, brought on by a dishonest political activist.  The PLP should avoid pandering to this foolishness but there it is.  So the pastors were quite polite, they were fulsome of their praise of the Prime Minister and his work.  However, these genteel meetings mask an underlying issue.  The Haitian migration issue is still with us and many in the Haitian community simply refuse to abide by the laws of The Bahamas. So for example, you have people who know that they are supposed to have work permits but don’t have them.  They don’t register their children for residency permits, knowing that they are not in law Bahamian citizens. Then in the midst of all this frenzy when they get caught out, they come to PLP politicians to try and straighten the unlawful behaviour out on compassionate grounds.  This is the thing that annoys the Bahamian public and the issue in which they are justified. The larger picture is that the citizenship laws are to complicated and  they should change to simpler formulations.  But that’s a long story.  In the meantime, we muddle along.