Discrimination against women in nationality laws and the ineffective implementation of laws to grant nationality to long-term residents contributed to statelessness in The Bahamas, according to the US Department of State's 2022 Human Rights Report on the country.
"The government made little progress in advancing legislation to address statelessness," the report states.
"The Ministry of Immigration and parliamentarians, however, lengthened Cabinet sessions to work through the nationality application backlogs.''
The report also notes that under the constitution, Bahamas-born persons of foreign heritage must apply for citizenship during a 12-month period following their 18th birthday, but applicants sometimes waited many years for a government response.
"The short window for application, difficulty of securing proper documentation, and long wait times left multiple generations of persons, primarily of Haitian descent, without a nationality," the report read.
The report also points out that government policy allows individuals who missed the 12-month window to gain legal permanent residency, but many people of Haitian descent lacked the necessary documents.
It adds that children born in the country to non-Bahamian parents were eligible to apply for "belonger" status that entitled them to reside in the country legally and access public education and health insurance.
"Belonger permits were readily available," the report states.
It documents that in two separate cases, individuals born in the country to non-Bahamian parents were still awaiting the government's determination on their nationality more than 20 years after submitting their applications.
In both situations, the individuals relied on their employer to renew their work permits each year to maintain legal status, the report states.
It points to unofficial estimates that between 30,000 and 60,000 residents were Haitians or of Haitian descent, making them the largest ethnic minority.
"Many persons of Haitian origin lived in informal settlements with limited sewage and garbage services, law enforcement, and other public services," the State Department observes.
"Authorities generally granted Haitian children access to education and social services, but ethnic tensions and inequities persisted. Members of the Haitian community reported widespread intimidation on social media by fringe political groups advocating for stricter citizenship and deportation laws."
The report notes there were no reliable estimates of the number of people without a confirmed nationality.
"The government asserted several individuals refused to pursue Haitian citizenship due to fear of deportation or loss of future claim to Bahamian citizenship," it read.
"Such persons often waited several years for the government to decide on their nationality applications and, in the interim, lacked documentation to secure employment, housing, and public services. The lack of a passport also prohibited students from pursuing higher education outside the country."
The Davis administration has promised a citizenship bill to allow Bahamian men and women to pass on their citizenship equally in all circumstances.
However, it is not expected to address the issue of statelessness.
Long-standing issue
The 2013 report of the Constitutional Commission, which was chaired by former Attorney General Sean McWeeney, KC, addressed this issue of statelessness, noting the Haitian Constitution provides for individuals to acquire nationality through descent but only if either of their parents is native-born, and has never renounced their citizenship.
Thus, those persons born in The Bahamas to a native-born Haitian parent who has not renounced Haitian citizenship would become Haitian nationals at birth and retain it indefinitely thereafter. But if their parents are not native-born or have renounced, they would effectively be stateless.
Thus, the right to claim Haitian citizenship by descent is limited to the first generation.
Even where persons falling into this category are entitled to Haitian citizenship, most choose not to acquire Haitian passports as, in any event, they would be required to renounce that citizenship at 18 to acquire Bahamian citizenship, the commission stated. The Haitian Constitution forbids dual Haitian and foreign nationality.
"The commission cannot overstate the enormous psychological, socioeconomic and other ill-effects that result from leaving large groups of persons in limbo in relation to their aspirations for Bahamian citizenship," it stated.
"Not only are the affected individuals badly damaged and marginalized, the entire society is put at risk and its future compromised by having within its borders a substantial body of persons who, although having no knowledge or experience of any other society, are made to feel that they are intruders without any claim, moral or legal, for inclusion.
"Such feelings of alienation and rejection are bound to translate into antisocial behavior among many members of what is, in effect, a very large underclass in our society."
The commission observed, "This is obviously a most untenable position in which to place individuals who were born in The Bahamas, have no connection (other than ancestral) to any other country, and have no intention of residing anywhere else."
With respect to the position of children born in The Bahamas after independence, neither of whose parents is a Bahamian, the 2013 commission recommended that this be the subject of further study.
To achieve this, the commission recommended the appointment of a commission to consider further questions relating to nationality and the basis on which nationality should be acquired by children born in The Bahamas to non-Bahamian parents.
Ten years on, no commission was ever appointed.
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