The attentive public is today quite convinced that the Government can and should do more to deal with the allegations of corruption in the Department of Immigration. The time for real action is now.
As we have previously suggested there are persistent reports to the effect that corruption is endemic in the ranks of the Immigration Department, and that there are any number of apparently credible reports, which speak of Immigration Officers – in and out of uniform who routinely ‘charge’ people for the supply of any number of services. These – we are informed-run the gamut from filling in forms to seeing to it that applications are some how dealt with more expeditiously than others.
In other words, they are on the take. They are literally selling out their country. There are times in life when the answer to a problem is so close to hand that no one sees it. A case in point concerns what some people say is an open secret, which is that there are in the employ of The Immigration Department any number of people who solicit and who do accept bribes.
This bribe taking is costly to the society at large, insofar as it systematically undermines policy and defeats the best of intentions of the policy makers and honest bureaucrats.
We begin – as it were – with a classic no-brainer, that being to make the point that the policy of the Bahamas Government is to protect the well being and provide maximum employment opportunities for Bahamians. As a consequence, and in a nutshell in order to obtain a work permit to work in The Bahamas an employer must demonstrate that there is not a Bahamian ready willing and able to fill the position.
By and large, this policy has worked.
But no matter whether the reference is to the grant of citizenship, permanent residency, or the work permit, processes and procedures currently in place have become nightmarish, expensive, and increasingly subject to incipient corruption. There is abundance galore to suggest that things have gotten so bad that many people, who might well be eligible for some status, have simply given up.
We are also being told that there are instances of downright fraud and that in some instances counterfeit work permits and other fraudulent documents are circulating in a very lucrative criminal underworld.
While we are not currently in a position to give chapter and verse – so to speak – on these allegations of institutionalized corruption in the Immigration, we are today quite convinced that ‘something is going down’.
As a matter of the most urgent priority- we call on the Minister of Immigration and Labor, the Hon. Vincent Peet to delve into the question as to why these allegations persist, and to determine the extent to which they have any basis in fact.
Another more insidious aspect of this matter involves a persistent complaint to the effect that officers who have family ties with certain undocumented migrants are compromising the effectiveness of the Immigration Department. Indeed there have been allegations to the effect that some of these officers routinely tip-off would be deportees in exchange for money.
What makes these allegations so terribly damning is the impact they are currently having on those Immigration Officers and workers who are not on the take. They are – as it were – being smeared by innuendo borne of unwitting association with crooks.
This makes it all the more urgent for the authorities to dig deep, thereby either confirming the integrity of the systems in place or identifying the extent, expanse and depth of the rot that so may Bahamians believe is to be found in the innards of the Department of Immigration.
Bahamians are not foolish. Anyone who tries to treat them as if they were would – in short order- be in for a most rude awakening. Take for example the manner in which the Government has sought to deal with persistent allegations about corruption in the Department of Immigration.
At one time or the other there have been promises to the effect that investigations are being conducted; that the Minister is awaiting a report; or that the matter is under serious review.
Truth is today that these word constructions are being seen for what they are, nothing more than artful evasions of the truth, which is that next to nothing is being done.
Editorial from The Bahama Journal
