Amidst concerns about the speed at which some people can qualify for Barbados citizenship and possible devaluation of the passport, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Senator Chris Sinckler says he believes this country’s ability to conduct due diligence on applicants should trump all of that.
He acknowledged that the current system was slow, “not fit for purpose” and there were often complaints from the business sector that Government was taking too long in these instances, leading to loss of investment.
Sinckler sat in the hearing of Parliament’s Joint Select Committee (Standing) on the Economic and Productive Sectors on the Immigration Bill 2026 and Barbados Citizenship Bill 2026, yesterday under the chairmanship of Member of Parliament for St George North, Dwight Sutherland.
He said there was a certain level of “sacrosanctness” with which the Barbados passport and citizenship were regarded and should be a cause of national pride as one of the “critical vestiges of our sovereignty and our independence as a nation”.
He added: “The issue for me is how do you manage the process in a way to make it more efficient. We are here – that is the people who have designed and drafted this – because we have known from our interaction with the system it takes way too long; that is the problem, Senator Mallalieu, that I think the drafters are trying to fix.”
Sinckler was responding to the submission from Independent Senator Andrew Mallalieu who was of the view that the free movement afforded under CARICOM and other legislation permitted people – particularly those who obtain citizenship by investment – to get into Barbados, sometimes without due diligence.
“We are a sovereign nation [and] our passport should be a sovereign matter, but when you have other countries choosing who they will sell passports to, and then by virtue of that act we have to recognise those persons in Barbados, I think that that is a significant weakening of the Barbados passport because we don’t get to choose who they choose to sell passports to,” Mallalieu said.
He said the proposed period [1 095 days’ residency in Barbados which equated to roughly three years] was too short.
Sinckler said some people waited for years to get citizenship approved and some died without ever hearing from the Immigration Department. He asked whether making someone wait longer made them more Barbadian.
“We have to be realistic about what we’re dealing with. The current age of information and the rapidity, the quickness, the speed with which we are able to access information gives us new tools to manage the system,” the Senior Minister said.
“We also have to determine for our own comfort – but in a realistic way and a practical way – what is the length of time that we presume a person should be able to assimilate into society . . . and then we have to make the ultimate determination from a national security perspective.”
Sinckler said there appeared to be a misunderstanding regarding the rights afforded under free movement in CARICOM. He pointed out there were rules governing how the minister and the Chief Immigration Officer functioned and it was “not a free-for-all”. He called for a happy medium to strengthen the existing rules for improved due diligence but also greater efficiency and efficacy of the system because the current one was not fit for purpose.
Opposition Senator Ryan Walters supported Mallalieu and asked why the need for a rush when other countries operated on longer time spans – cited as between five to seven years by Sutherland.
Minister of Technological and Vocational Training Sandra Husbands said there were people in her St James South constituency who were already being impacted by the current length of time for approval. She said they were not entitled to free health care or education while paying taxes, and could not qualify for some benefits, which was why Government moved to make social security payments transferable across countries.
During the discussion, Chief Immigration Officer Margaret Inniss said they were furnished with Advanced Passenger Lists and so were able to scrutinise applicants and people seeking to enter Barbados.
(SAT)
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