{"id":34914,"date":"2013-04-24T20:28:25","date_gmt":"2013-04-25T00:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/?p=34914"},"modified":"2013-04-24T20:28:25","modified_gmt":"2013-04-25T00:28:25","slug":"immigration-snafu-at-atlantis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/04\/immigration-snafu-at-atlantis","title":{"rendered":"Immigration SNAFU at Atlantis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/2013\/04\/immigration-snafu-at-atlantis-34914.html\/bahamas-immigration-customs-2\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-34917\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-34917\" title=\"bahamas-immigration-customs\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/bahamas-immigration-customs.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/bahamas-immigration-customs.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/bahamas-immigration-customs-150x112.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a>Immigration officers escorted a foreign employee off the Atlantis property in error, sparking further concerns that the government\u2019s new immigration policy is too aggressive.<\/p>\n<p>The American woman works with marine mammals at the resort.<\/p>\n<p>Director of Immigration William Pratt yesterday admitted the woman was brought in by mistake.<\/p>\n<p>He told The Nassau Guardian the woman had her work permit application refused in February, but he said the refusal was being appealed.<\/p>\n<p>He said a complaint was made to the department that the woman was \u201cinforming persons that she was a visitor\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said officers from the department then picked her up for questioning, not knowing that her matter was under appeal.<\/p>\n<p>Pratt explained that because her matter was being appealed the woman did not have to leave the country or stop working.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the normal process, if a permit is refused and an appeal comes in immediately after, we normally would not ask them to leave,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe would ask them to stay in place until the board reviews the case. That\u2019s the normal policy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He said after realizing that the matter was under appeal they released the woman.<\/p>\n<p>Pratt also admitted that her appeal was misplaced.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSomehow it was between here and there and the appeal was not where it should be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>St. Anne\u2019s Member of Parliament Hubert Chipman, who is also the shadow minister of immigration, said the government is \u201ctoo aggressive in their policy\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou just don\u2019t do that to people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the person has appealed they have every right to the appeal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOnce the process is over then the law takes its course.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pratt said no place is off limits to immigration officers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe can go to Atlantis, we can go to Lyford Cay, Old Fort Bay, anyplace where we get a complaint,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen we bring someone in for interrogation, sometimes you just simply asks them to accompany you to the office for further interrogation and questioning and research of records. \u201cSometimes there is a misunderstanding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the officers come [back to the department] and get the proper information then we do our proper search and [if everything is in order and] we realize you are free, you can go back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The government recently announced that it was tightening its work permit policy.<\/p>\n<p>Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell stressed that the government will make no apologies for its commitment to Bahamianization.<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"color: #888888;\">By Travis Cartwright-Carroll<\/span><\/em><br \/>\n<em><span style=\"color: #888888;\">Guardian Staff Reporter<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Immigration officers escorted a foreign employee off the Atlantis property in error, sparking further concerns that the government\u2019s new immigration policy is too aggressive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[109,1609,1608],"class_list":["post-34914","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-atlantis","tag-embarassment","tag-immigration-policy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34914\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}