The Smuggling of Migrants Bill will soon become the law of the land. When the Free National Movement forms the next government, it will be repealed.
The reason is simple: The bill is a far cry from a real crackdown on illegal entrants, as well as the smugglers and financiers who exploit them for profit.
The government’s proposed amendments cannot patch or polish what’s wrong with this legislation.
- The Bill continues to treat smuggled migrants as “victims” in a general sense, even where those individuals willingly paid smugglers and chose to enter The Bahamas illegally. That is not consistent with international practice.
Trafficking involves coercion, and those victims deserve protection. Smuggling involves consent, and migrants voluntarily join illegal networks to evade lawful entry. Our stance on this is clear: persons who voluntarily participate in smuggling should face penalties, not receive the protections reserved for genuine trafficking victims.
- Inexplicably, the Bill places operational authority, including temporary residence decisions, under the Minister of National Security rather than the Minister responsible for Immigration. This makes no sense.
- The PLP’s main defence is that the Bill is needed to meet international obligations. That is simply not true. International protocols do not require The Bahamas to soften penalties for smuggling or blur the line between trafficking and smuggling. They do not override Parliament’s duty to protect the peace and security of our country.
- The Bill currently grants a smuggled migrant the “right” to enjoy urgent medical care, which cannot be refused “by reason of an irregularity in the migrants’ entry or stay in The Bahamas. ” Bahamians don’t benefit from this right in their own country today. At a time when our healthcare system is bursting at the seams, this provision rolls out the red carpet for lawbreakers while our people suffer through unacceptable delays.
Global evidence supports the opposite of what the government proposes. Countries that have successfully reduced illegal migration, such as the Dominican Republic, first strengthened enforcement, tightened their borders, increased repatriations, and only then imposed harsher penalties on smugglers. Deterrence works. Weak enforcement does not.
The Government’s amendments also prove another point we have made from the start: there should have been full public consultation. If they had listened to Bahamians, to frontline officers, to legal experts, and to communities directly affected, they would have understood how many new loopholes they were about to create.
Instead, this administration continues to prove that it does not care what Bahamians say, think, or want.
They want a serious, structured plan to fix a broken immigration system.
They won’t get it from the PLP. They can’t get it from a third party.
Only the FNM has a plan to build an immigration system you can trust, and that starts with implementing Operation SHIELD starting on day one.