Legislation to allow more categories of people to attain Barbadian citizenship will go before Parliament soon, Minister of Home Affairs and Information Wilfred Abrahams said Sept. 22, as he called for discussion on a regional migration policy. He said the new laws will also seek to streamline processes associated with immigration policies.
“The new Immigration and Citizenship Acts, which are both advanced in preparation, will regularize the status of persons already in the island while expanding the net of persons who qualify for status and citizenship. These Acts will also address irregularities and perceived barriers which have been identified and seek to make the application process a lot simpler,” he said.
“Along with citizenship, we will be taking the opportunity to examine the policies and measures relating to immigrant status, permanent residence, student visas, payment modalities, all with a view of simplifying processes and reducing processing times … Through these improvements, Barbados is frontally recognizing the intrinsic link between migration and economic policy,” Abrahams said.
Delivering her budget in March this year, Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced that a major overhaul of the country’s immigration policy would be coming in a matter of months, as she said that Barbados needed to fix its “population issues.”