NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC) – The Bahamas Acting Immigration Director, William Pratt has sought to clarify the stance taken by his office to deport children born in the country to Haitian parents who lack legal status to be in the country.

He was responding to Human Rights Bahamas —a group that often advocates for immigrants— which stated that children born in The Bahamas should not be deported even if their parents lack legal status.

Pratt’s comment came after the friend of a woman who was recently apprehended allegedly for her lack of legal status visited a local newspaper to complain that no one could take care of her friend’s 10-year-old daughter, who was left behind because she was in school when her mother was taken.

According to the newspaper report, the friend said her efforts to reunite the girl with her mother, including a visit to the Carmichael Road Detention Centre, failed.

The girl, Lugina Pette’Homme, said she loved her mother and cried after learning immigration officers arrested her.

Lugina, a primary school student said she did not want to go to Haiti because she had never been there and was born and raised in The Bahamas.

When contacted, Pratt told the newspaper that immigration officials would investigate a claim that the mother had a work permit application for which the only outstanding requirement is payment.

He said if the mother has no legal right to be in the country and no relatives want to adopt the girl, the child would be deported to Haiti with her mother.