Michael Pintard
Rachel Scott
The Nassau Guardian
A group of foreign-born fishermen, their Bahamian spouses and commercial fishing enterprises have taken legal action against the government, claiming that the Fisheries Bill, 2020, which specifies that only Bahamian citizens are permitted to engage in commercial fishing in The Bahamas, is unconstitutional and discriminatory.
The originating summons, filed on Friday, lists Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources Michael Pintard, Minister of Financial Services, Trade and Industry and Immigration Elsworth Johnson, and Attorney General Carl Bethel as respondents.
The applicants are Morazan Zunig Jackson and Jaime Reynaldo Perez, who are foreign spouses of Bahamian women; their wives, Maria Jackson and Raquel Anthonya Major-Perez; and a number of commercial fishing enterprises – Fish Farmers Ltd., Three Ro Bahamas Ltd., 3 Kids Corp Bahamas Ltd., Audley Seafood Ltd., Percival Roberts (D/B/A Geneva Brass Seafood) and Paradise Fisheries Ltd.
The applicants claim that the prohibition of foreign workers in the commercial fishing industry is “draconian”. Read more >>