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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2017 - 1:45:37 AM |
Minister Mitchell address the Seventh Day Adventist Church in Moss Town Exuma (BIS Photo)
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Moss Town, Exuma - The following is the Hon Fred Mitchell, Bahamas Minister of Foreign Affairs' remarks in Exuma on Sunday, October 5th:
A Celebration Of Nations: Connected people to people; heart to heart
Good morning Reverend gentlemen and ladies. My friend and colleague Anthony Moss MP and Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government. The Chief Councilor Leonard Dames and his Councilors. Ladies and gentlemen.
It is good to be in Exuma and good to have been asked back a second year to this celebration of nations.
I flew here directly from New York where I delivered the country’s national statement. This year’s was a tough message and while we celebrate the comity between nations, we have some tough and unyielding work to do and we have to enlist your support in that work.
The message to the world this year was that The Bahamas and Bahamians were determined to look after their very survival and existence by paying attention to three major areas of concern: the environment, crime and illegal immigration. These must not be words alone, however, they must translate into action. To be translated into action, it is the people of the country who must support what we do.
I recall the words spoken recently by the US President Barrack Obama at a function I attended last Saturday evening in Washington D C. He recalled that when he travels over the US seeking support for this policies, people come up to him and they remark about how gray he is getting, or the additional wrinkles in his face and they say I am praying for you. He replies to them that he needs prayer and he wants prayers but what he would like is for them to go out and vote. John Kennedy said it best when in his inaugural address he said: God’s work on earth must truly be our own.
What we need then is the full support of civil society and this includes the church community of our policies in immigration, for the survivability of our country as a state and the existing cultural milieu. The country needs prayers. I need your prayers but what I also want is your support for this difficult work that we have to do.
Mitchell poses with attendees including the Head of the Bahamas Adventist Conference, Rev. Leonard Johnson.
(BIS Photo)
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Nowhere is this a more sensitive and touchy subject than immigration. It will require a discipline like we have never exercised before to resist seeking to hire illegal migrants, to resist renting premises to them; to resist not paying work permit fees then seeking to get them released; to resist allowing them to live in our communities.
We must be that strict, even as we behave in a humane fashion to those who would breach our laws.
When we do not resist and when we are undisciplined then we undercut the national security of our country and our state and we threaten the survivability of the country. It is that serious.
One of the things I said in the UN statement was that we have seen how in other countries, allowing illegal immigration to fester without let or hindrance has led to civil strife in those countries and in some cases the very identity of the country has changed. We do not intend for that to happen in The Bahamas.
There will be law and order. There should be no place where public officials cannot go in this country on legitimate and lawful missions. You will see additional law and order exercises within the coming weeks to assert the position of our authorities in law. Our public law enforcement will have their loyalty and discipline and humanity tested in ways that are unparalleled in recent years.
All people who live in this country owe this country their loyalty and faithfulness. Your parents may have come from another place but you are here now, so your loyalty is to here, not to that other place. This is not a time for any group to play the victim card.
In fact you ought to know for example that before you can become a citizen of this country, each person has to take an exam and you have to pass that exam about our culture and symbols before you can be enrolled as a citizen. It is serious business.
Here in Exuma, we want to stop the problem before it gets worse and will be working with the civic authorities to ensure that the laws are enforced and that immigration rules are obeyed: whether at the top of the scale or not.
People like to pick on our friends from the south but there is also abuse by others who say they are here as tourists but are working away at jobs that locals can do and without work permits. All of this undermine the labour market and ultimately our national security.
So we must be welcoming, but we must be vigilant.
We must be strict but we must be humane.
I hope as the operations unfold here in Exuma and throughout the country, that we will have your support to eliminate the shanty towns and the unsafe and unsanitary housing; to eliminate all the loopholes for those who would flout the immigration laws.
I would like to thank then the people of The Bahamas and all who are lawfully abiding residents for their help in dealing with this problem. A special thanks to the men and women of the Immigration Department, the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Customs Department for their help and work as well.
I need to say again that the Department of Immigration is the smallest of these agencies. It has 231 people nationwide. In my view we will need to triple that in order to meet the demands that are being asked of the Department and this means tripling its budget as well, a making a significant investment in equipment including up to date computer software. That is not a demand but the reality of the situation we face and it should inform some of the commentary when people make unreasonable demands of the agency, its men and women.
Mitchell cuts birthday cake. (BIS Photo)
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I said it will take discipline. It will take fortitude. Sometimes it will take ignoring the ring of the telephone when someone says, “I want you to save mine but get the others.”
I said it would be a tough message today. The truth should not be sugar coated. It is not to frighten you but to challenge you to meet the realities of the modern Bahamas. I commend it to you. These are tough times. In all things however, give thanks. I thank you for inviting me here today.
My great respect to all of you and God bless you all.
© Copyright 2014 by thebahamasweekly.com
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