National

Former AG: Citizenship Issue A No Brainer

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Pass the bill! That’s the charge from Former Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson who says a bill is drafted to address the ongoing citizenship battle.

Published

2 months ago

March 31, 2023

Berthony McDermott

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Pass the bill! That’s the charge from Former Attorney General Allyson Maynard-Gibson who says a bill is drafted to address the ongoing citizenship battle.

Amid the ongoing debate over the right to pass on citizenship, Maynard-Gibson says there needs to be a greater push not just by the government, but from the electorate.

She referenced the woman’s suffrage movement as a catalyst.

This week, Chief Justice Sir Ian Winder warned that requiring individuals born in The Bahamas to foreign parents who are Bahamians-in-waiting, to live on the outside of their own society, is a recipe for social discontent.

He said there’s no lawful justification as to why the applications ought to take years and in some instances decades.

The immigration minister just a few days later said the process cannot be rushed, noting there have been instances of fraud.

Then there’s the fact that Bahamian women cannot pass citizenship on to their children, if the father is a non-Bahamian.

But Maynard-Gibson says the groundwork has already been laid.

But as the debate drags on and the piece of legislation is shelved, the former AG says many are going through hardship.