IMMIGRATION TOWN MEETING - Abaco Journal April 1998

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IMMIGRATION AWARENESS TOWN MEETING

Immigration Awareness Week closed on 28th February with a town meeting held at St John's Parish Hall, Marsh Harbour. Present were Minister of Immigration, Labour and Training Theresa Moxey-Ingraham; Director Melvin Seymour; Permanent Secretary Anita Beneby; MP Robert Sweeting; Island Administrator Everette Hart with Deputies Jack Thompson and Preston Cunningham; Local Government Chief Councillors from north and south and other local dignitaries.

Local Immigration Officer Roosevelt Newbold acted as Chairman and the first official to speak was Director Melvin Seymour. He pointed out that his Ministry was not there just "stamping passports and catching Haitians" but in the business of advising people of their rights and privileges. He introduced Minister Ingraham as the most hard-working person he had ever worked with.

Minister Theresa Moxey-Ingraham said that the Abaco audience was the largest of all during National Immigration Awareness Week, larger than those at meetings held in Nassau and Freeport. She declared her Ministry the gatekeeper of the country, a tool for development, the arbiter of suitable investment for the country, and the careful granter of citizenship and other status that protected the welfare of Bahamians. Deportations, she confessed, were an unfortunate part of the Ministry's responsibilities and cost some $1,000,000 a year. Not only Haitians were deported, she said, but nationals from Uganda to Yugoslavia. Minister Ingraham then opened up the floor to questions.

The questions generally fell into two categories: those from Bahamians wishing to be protected from perceived economic deprivation, and those from Haitians with status application problems. There was a distinct undercurrent of discontent and at times the proceedings grew tetchy. At the end of a series of questions from Rev Carlton Dorsette even Minister Ingraham expressed impatience saying, "All this is hypothetical. Let's move on!"

The plight of Samuel Fenelus typified the questions from the Haitian community. He had been in The Bahamas for 35 years, he said, and had applied for citizenship in 1991. He had been interviewed in 1993 but nothing had happened since. His case and those of other Haitian nationals would be closely and immediately looked into, Mr Fenelus was promised. There was a spontaneous outburst of applause from many present, an indication that Mr Fenelus' case was well understood in the Haitian community.

Marsh Harbour Town Committee member Yvonne Key asked where all the people lived who were granted work permits, then answered her own question: "In my back yard!" Minister Ingraham pointed out that concerns about where people lived was not in her purview. She understood the problem but was unable to help. Mrs Key also said there were many people of nationalities other than Haitian who were working on the island illegally.

Mrs Key later asked whether the Minister was aware that the local Catholic church had once been issuing Baptismal Certificates to Haitian children that could be construed as being those of Bahamian children and used to obtain Bahamian passports. Minister Ingraham said this was totally out of the question as very rigorous investigations were carried out before the issuance of a passport which was, she reminded everybody, the responsibility of the Passport Office, part of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Rev Carlton Dorsette called upon Mrs Key to apologise but she declined: "I don't apologise for anything I say!"

Hartman Lightbourne of Sandy Point asked why so many Haitians were employed while Bahamians had no jobs. Does Mr Newbold speak Creole, he asked. Does he have a count of all the Haitians in The Mud. Does he have a full record of all Haitians. In the general discussion that followed it was asked why Haitians did not buy their own land and build. A Haitian man stated quite plainly that most Haitians did not earn the sort of wages that would enable them to buy land on Abaco.

Marsh Harbour Town Committee Member Bernis Pinder brought the Minister's attention to the fact that foreign nationals were heading two of Abaco's largest resort concerns: Abaco Beach Hotel and Abaco Towns. Surely, he said, the Bahamas Hotel Training College had graduated plenty of Bahamians with the ability to perform this type of job. Minister Ingraham said this was a very tricky area. She pointed out that most hoteliers in The Bahamas were non-Bahamian and operated 'hands on' under circumstances that many Bahamians would not accept as employees. Mr Pinder said the rate of remuneration in the hotel industry for foreigners with permits was much higher than that for Bahamians. Mrs Moxey-Ingraham agreed this might be so but pointed out the extra expenses involved in bringing in outsiders providing for them. "We cannot tell employers how much they can pay people if it's above the minimum wage."

The floor was then given over to Fr Stan of St Francis de Sales Catholic Church. He had been raised from his sickbed, he told the gathering, by a caller who had let him know what was said about his church earlier in the meeting. "These things keep coming up," he complained. "We are here to build bridges in the community." There was absolutely no truth to the allegations of any wrongdoing, he asserted.

Minister Ingraham assured Fr Stan that the matter had been fully dealt with and he could rest easy. "Go back to bed, Father!" she told him gently. Fr Stan did not leave and after Chief Councillor for South Abaco Benjamin Pinder had given the Vote of Thanks, Officer Newbold said: "While you're here, Father, you can give us the Benediction." And it was done.

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