CARDED AT BIRTH: NIB and Immigration Dept working on national ID card – EyeWitness News

NASSAU, BAHAMAS The National Insurance Board (NIB) is collaborating with the Department of Immigration to produce a card that will be issued at birth and indicate a persons nationality, Minister of Public Service and National Insurance Brensil Rolle told Parliament today.

Rolle, the Garden Hills MP, while making his contribution in Parliament to the mid-year budget debate, stated: What we would like to do is issue a card from birth so that we could follow you from the time you are born in The Bahamas using one identification number and one card.

Rolle noted that the NIB card has widespread usage in the country.

What we propose to do is have a card for anyone born in The Bahamas, he said.

They will get a card with a unique number. What the card will say is that you are born in The Bahamas. If you are Bahamian, your status will be Bahamian.

If at the time of your birth we cannot determine whether you are a Bahamian or not, we will just indicate that your status is unknown.

Collaboration is ongoing with the Department of Immigration. We will not do and cannot do anything that usurps the power and authority of the Department of Immigration.

Rolle stressed that NIB will not get into determining who is a Bahamian after St Annes MP Brent Symonette who formerly had responsibility for the Department of Immigration cautioned about making pronouncements on a persons status.

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CARDED AT BIRTH: NIB and Immigration Dept working on national ID card - EyeWitness News