Legislation to secure the rights of long term residents is set to go to Parliament in the summer, Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister said yesterday.

He said the Bermuda Immigration Protection Act 2002 would follow the lines of the white paper which was debated last summer.

Mr. Lister said the new law has already gone through its first draft but he said a pre-occupation with the budget would mean it would not be debated this session.

The bill would have to be approved by cabinet, said Mr. Lister, but he estimated it could be debated by the House of Assembly in the late May or early June.

Asked about the year's gap since the white paper debate Mr. Lister said: “It isn't so long, it's long for those who have been waiting, I understand that. They have been waiting a long time.

“We debated it last summer. The fall session is a short session, it's simply doing legislation that was almost ready in the June and July.

“The real stuff is in the spring and summer. So it's not too much of a long time.” The law is set to give status to around 400 non-Bermudians and job security and housing rights to hundreds more who have been on the island for more than 20 years.

And new laws are to be brought in to give the security forces new powers to cope with disaster situations and terrorist threats.

Mr. Lister said the Bermuda Regiment had handled Hurricane Erin and September 11 call-ups well but more could be done if future emergencies arose. He said: “What was brought into sharp focus by the September 11 events was the elevated need to ensure our response to terrorist actions if they hit Bermuda, similarly Bermuda's response to an international terrorism needs to be enhanced.

“Thus we'll focus our efforts in the coming year. We'll look at what Bermuda would do, could we handle this, are we ready for whatever comes out of terrorist activities?” He said there was a lack of law to take proper enforcement action if people didn't co-operate during natural or man-made crisis and new law will be developed to cover all these situations.

He said: “We don't have have the ability to take charge and get these things done in a legal framework that people think we do. “If people object and don't want to do what's required there's not sufficient legal back up to do it. We'll plug this hole this year.”