Members of a protest group almost shut down a public forum on immigration reform before the meeting could start last night, as the emotive topic of Bermudian status came up for discussion.

Tempers flared as the Immigration Reform Working Group gathered with about 120 members of the public to solicit input for its final report.

It was the group’s fourteenth meeting under three different ministers in the 18 months since it was appointed to review and propose amendments to the Bermuda Immigration Act 1956.

Its ultimate findings are to be presented to Walton Brown, the Minister of Home Affairs, by October 31.

The ten-person group was convened under chairman William Madeiros after the One Bermuda Alliance’s proposed Pathways to Status sparked days of protests in March 2016.

Last night at Elliot Primary School, Mr Madeiros sparred with about a dozen members of the group Move Bermuda, which protested against the forum splitting into groups and repeatedly called out phrases such as “Bermuda first”.

One member said: “If I get into a group, how do I know that what I have stated, and my concerns, are reflected in your final report?”

Mr Madeiros eventually called for “a five-minute time-out” to calls of “This is our country”.

The chairman returned to urge participants unhappy with the format of the meetings to make their concerns known to the minister.

Other participants called for an end to the disruption, with one woman saying: “We want to hear what’s being said. I am Bermudian and I am as passionate as you are, but we are getting nowhere.”

As group member Dennis Fagundo attempted to open the discussion on status, black-shirted members of Move Bermuda demanded to know if he was Bermudian, prompting fellow member Senator Crystal Caesar to cut in: “Be quiet or leave.”

Mr Fagundo, who is Bermudian, dealt with the core question of the night as to whether long-term residents should eventually qualify as Bermudian, and how.

“Right now, the only way that someone who is not Bermudian gets status is by marrying into it,” Mr Fagundo said.

“It’s been fairly widely suggested there should be some mechanism, and it has been suggested by others that there should be no mechanism.”

He added: “There may be a consensus or there could be completely diverse views. That’s what we have come for.”

But Mr Madeiros again had to assert control, telling the more vocal members of the audience to “allow the group to continue its good work”.

The meetings proceeded in small groups without incident, with Mr Madeiros later reporting: “We went on without any upset, and engaged in robust and frank discussions.”

The chairman said he “completely understood” the intense sensitivity surrounding the vexed question of Bermudian status.

Pathways to Status had included an avenue for permanent residency for 15-year residents of the island, which Michael Dunkley, then the Premier, conceded had provoked the most anger.

The group has examined other issues such as status for children born in Bermuda, and cases of mixed-status families.

The working group continues to solicit views, which can be sent via a drop box on the ground floor of the Government Administration Building on Parliament Street, or by e-mail to immigrationbda@gmail.com.