Minister of Legal Affairs and Criminal Justice Michael Lashley is reassuring Barbadians that the new Immigration and Citizenship bills will not open the floodgates, telling the House of Assembly that procedural safeguards are built into the legislation to balance national security with natural justice.
“We don’t want Barbadians to think that we’re opening the floodgates,” Lashley told the House during a short contribution to the debate recently. The Citizenship Bill, he said, carries safeguards: written notice of deprivation, disclosed grounds, and an independent inquiry committee chaired by a legally qualified person.
Lashley, noted that civil society, political parties and ordinary Barbadians had helped shaped the bills at the committee stage. He said, “that creates a whole atmosphere of transparency and accountability”. He also welcomed a provision requiring the minister to table a register of new citizens in Parliament, likening it to the Housing Act’s requirement on land acquisitions.
The minister said the legislation would strengthen Barbados’ efforts to combat human trafficking, illegal firearms and transnational gangs, recalling that he had faced questioning from international partners only last week.
“We will be bringing these pieces of legislation that will secure our borders and protect the public interest and national security,” he said.
The bills create a list of persons barred from entry – human traffickers, drug traffickers and serious criminals – and make it an offence to enter Barbados using false travel documents or passports obtained by fraud. Lashley recalled a court case in which a man appeared with a fraudulent passport and, six months later, reappeared under a different name and passport number, a loophole that previously carried only minor penalties. Under the new bills, the conduct is a summary offence with fines of up to $150 000.
He also revealed a personal brush with the existing regime. Born outside Barbados to Barbadian parents working in England, he was told on returning home that he had to register as a foreign student at the community college. “I have a card that I walk with, it says ‘citizen by descent’,” he said. “I was the victim of our Immigration Act.”
In closing, Lashley echoed his colleague, St John MP, Charles Griffith, arguing that the modernised regime would allow skilled grandchildren of Barbadians in sports, music and other fields to return to the country and share their talents.
“Although we have the safeguards, we still operate in the interests of natural justice and fairness,” he said.
The bill was passed.
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