I am pleased to announce that following the assent by the Governor General on Friday 8th May, the Immigration Amendment Act 2015 and the regulations made thereunder come into force today. This is a pleasing development and one which will strengthen the hand of the Department of Immigration as it seeks to stem the tide of unlawful migration in The Bahamas.
The Act will amongst other things provide for stiffer penalties for illegal landing, for harbouring illegal migrants and for making attempts to leave this country to be smuggled into another country. The Act will also make it an offence to enter into a fraudulent marriage and will strengthen the powers of arrest of Immigration Officers.
It creates for the first time an Immigration Reserve, patterned after the Police Reserves. It will be established in the next fiscal year and in the first instance in islands that have, at present, no immigration presence. An announcement will be made shortly on when recruitment can be expected for the reserve.
The Act also creates an immigration status known as a Belonger’s Permit to be issued to those who are born in The Bahamas to non-Bahamian parents and who are lawfully in The Bahamas. The fee for this is 125 dollars.
The public is reminded that everyone who lives and works in The Bahamas should have evidence of that right to live and work here. This includes non-national students. It includes those children born of non-national parents in The Bahamas.
I thank the public for its continued support of all of the measures that have been taken so far and those to come to try to manage the problem of illegal migration.
STATEMENT BY THE MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND IMMIGRATION ON THE COMING INTO FORCE OF THE NEW IMMIGRATION AMENDMENT BILL.
