New fisheries law may cause increase in marriages of convenience, Munroe argues

Wayne Munroe, QC, said yesterday that he believes the government’s Fisheries Act, 2020, will make way for more marriages of convenience to occur, saying government didn’t “think it through”.

“If the purpose is to prevent the commercialization of marriages through marriages of convenience, it will have quite the opposite effect,” Munroe argued.

“Our constitution says a person is entitled to citizenship, so long as they make their application, that they are married at the time they make their application.

“So, that tends to suggest that if I’m married to you as the Bahamian woman, when I make my application, if it takes three months, if I’m divorced from you by that time, I still have a right to it because I was married at the time I made the application.”

A group of foreign-born fishermen, their Bahamian spouses and commercial fishing enterprises have taken legal action against the government over the new law, claiming that it is unconstitutional and discriminatory.

A provision in the law seeks to make it illegal for anyone other than a Bahamian citizen to take part in commercial fishing.

“They can take the position that only Bahamians can be on these boats, no problem,” Munroe said.

“When you have a foreigner married to a Bahamian woman, then he must get citizenship right away on making his application.

“You get him citizenship, you make him Bahamian, you’ll still have only Bahamians on these boats. Now, the fact of the matter is when the Bahamian woman gets married today and the fella applies today, you may have to give him citizenship in two, three months as opposed to 15 years later. But when he gets his citizenship two, three months later, he’s on the boat, you keep your policy of only Bahamians on the boat. It’s just that that is going to encourage a lot of marriages of convenience where that is what you were supposedly trying to discourage.”

The applicants who filed the lawsuit against government said the new law also discriminates against Bahamian owners of commercial fishing vessels who employ foreign workers.

Both Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Michael Pintard and Immigration Minister Elsworth Johnson have said government is not budging on its position and wish to have the industry open to only Bahamians.

The Fisheries Act, 2020, and the Immigration (Amendment) Act, 2020, both passed in the House of Assembly and Senate in December 2020.

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source https://thenassauguardian.com/new-fisheries-law-may-cause-increase-in-marriages-of-convenience-munroe-argues/