By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

IMMIGRATION Minister Brent Symonette has urged work permit applicants holding letters of approval to finalise their payments or face deportation, revealing yesterday the Department of Immigration is presently owed some $5m in outstanding fees.

Speaking to reporters outside of Cabinet, Mr Symonette indicated that letters of approval are normally released with a 30-day “life expectancy”.

He implored permit seekers to visit the department’s Hawkins Hill office and pay all outstanding fees and collect their new permits. Failure to do so, Mr Symonette said, would result in those letters expiring and the status of those holders reverting back to “illegal”.

“Now I accept that there is a problem with the Post Office and everything else like that,” the St Anne’s MP stressed.

“But just so everyone knows, if a person does not come in and pay for their permi - because they usually walk around for months with (an application receipt) - they will be considered as an illegal immigrant and deported. Irrespective of how many times they had a work permit.

“You get the letter, you pay your fees or you are deemed to be an illegal immigrant. That will be strictly enforced.”

Last year the department mandated that permit holders be fingerprinted when collecting new or renewed permits as part of its new digital system.

It was also revealed as many as 7,000 applications were rolled over from 2017 as a result of the department’s computer system’s metrics.

Mr Symonette at the time argued that step was critical in the country determining who exactly was receiving the document.

“The onus is on the person, you can’t put the onus on the state. I can prove who I am, I got a birth certificate. When I was born the registrar physically came to the hospital and saw the mother laying in the bed with baby in hand. What happens now is PMH gives a letter saying Robin Symonette had a live birth, and you then take that piece of paper down to the registrar,” he said at the time.

When asked yesterday about the department’s legacy backlog, Mr Symonette insisted turn-around times for work permits have been reduced to six weeks, with one-third of responses now being communicated via email.

As for permanent residence and citizenship applications, Mr Symonette said the Citizenship Commission was down to its final 233 applications.

The body was appointed last February to review applications of people with a clear constitutional right to apply – ie. they were born in the Bahamas and applied between the ages of 18 and 19 – to be registered as citizens.

The commission had targeted to naturalise nearly 400 people by the end of last year.

According to Mr Symonette, there were 3,331 citizenship approvals between 2012 and April 2017. Of this number, 1,969 were between 2012 to 2015; 789 in the year 2016 and 573 between January and April 2017.

Mr Symonette yesterday also revealed amendments to the Immigration Act proposed by Law Reform Commissioner Dame Anita Allen, former Court of Appeal president, were still being considered.

Mr Symonette said her recommendations will go back to Cabinet in about 60 days.

The Minnis administration has proposed plans to revamp the law since coming to office.

The existing act has not been substantially amended since the country gained independence in 1973.