NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Labor and Immigration Minister Keith Bell yesterday asserted that the Commercial Enterprises Act introduced by the Minnis administration in 2017 must be repealed, as he suggested that portions of the legislation were impractical.
Speaking with reporters ahead of a Cabinet meeting yesterday Bell said: “The Act has to be repealed. I have spent the attorney general on it but the Act is in effect.”
Bell singled out a portion of the legislation which mandates that the Director of Immigration makes a decision on a work permit application within 14 days of receiving the application and if the Director does not respond within that time frame, the work permit will be “automatically deemed to have been granted” and may only be later revoked if the Director has reasonable grounds for so doing on the basis of public, public morality or national security.
Bell however suggested that this was impractical.
“The problem of immigration is an age-old problem but in the face of all of this, we have had the former administration pass the Commercial Enterprise Act in 2017 which mandated that in 14 days of the date of an application the work permit will be issued regardless of due diligence,” he said.
“I know having sat in the chair now as Minister of Immigration that it is almost impossible for an application to be submitted today and within 14 days the Immigration department will have done due diligence.”
Bell added: “It has always been the policy of Immigration and the government that when someone applies for a work permit we have to ensure that they have a medical record, we have to ensure that they have a police record, a labor certificate issued and documents submitted are not fraudulent. How could that take two weeks to do?
The Commercial Enterprises Act, which is officially known as the Act for the Designation of Specified Commercial Enterprises and Specified Economic Zones in the Bahamas, “seeks to liberalize the granting of work permits to an enterprise that wishes to establish itself in the Bahamas, and requires work permits for its management team and key personnel”.
A company’s investment must however be a minimum of $250,000. The legislation enables a ‘specified commercial enterprise’ to obtain an Investments Board certificate granting it a specific number of work permits for certain positions. That certificate, which will initially be issued for one year and can be renewed, would allow key personnel to set up the company’s physical operations in the Bahamas before they obtain a work permit.
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