The Smuggling Of Migrants Bill was debated in the Senate on Thursday. Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Sen. Hon. Ryan Pinder led the debate.
The bill has been the subject of much scrutiny from the opposition. The Coalition of Independents (COI) held two protests against the bill and the Free National Movement (FNM) did not support the bill in the lower chamber.
During his presentation Pinder revealed that the previous FNM administration had drafted an asylum bill during their term. He said, “under their administration they had the Law Reform Commission and the Attorney General’s Office prepare a draft nationality, immigration and asylum bill starting in 2018. The bill clearly had deliberations through the term of the FNM government as a near final draft nationality, immigration and asylum bill was prepared in 2021.”
The Attorney General also read excerpts from a Cabinet conclusion on the draft bill. “The Minister of Financial Services, Trade Industry and Immigration in Consultation with the Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs are to revert with a final version of the bill within ninety days,” he read.
Pinder tabled the bill which he said was to be the final version to be advanced by the former government.
Opposition Senator Darren Henfield responded to Pinder’s comments. He said, “instead of allaying the fears of Bahamians was to come in here and talk about theatrics and politricks, was to come in here and table a document that was never tabled by the Free National Movement, a document that never saw the light of day and then went as far as to read a Cabinet conclusion. That’s a deep thing, when you’re gonna go and read Cabinet conclusions in a public space. I don’t know if that accords with convention but you know you have privilege in here so you can do all sorts of things.”
The Smuggling Of Migrants Bill was passed in the Senate.
