Vow
to disclose “the full truth” about the government’s new immigration policy following
Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell’s attempt to appease regional body
The Grand
Bahama Human Rights Association is alarmed and appalled at the cherry-picked,
sanitized, misleading description of the government’s new
immigration policy offered to the Organization of American States (OAS) by
Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell.
This
heavily censored version of reality cannot be allowed to stand – it is an affront to all those who
have seen their fundamental rights crushed under the heel of this illegal,
immoral and unconstitutional new policy, as well as to the country as a whole,
which is supposed to be grounded in an abiding respect for Christian principles
and the rule of law.
The
GBHRA has no choice but to travel to Washington and lay before the heads of the
OAS the full facts of the matter and set the record straight.
The
points we will clarify in direct response to Minister Mitchell’s statement
include:
• That his
description of the new policy as “two innocuous administrative measures”, is a
blatantly misleading characterization of the recent efforts to indiscriminately
round up, detain and deport suspected illegal immigrants in a manner which
violates their fundamental rights and the Bahamas Constitution which guarantees
them.
• That the
injunction that all non-nationals who live in The Bahamas must have to get and
hold the passport of their nationality, amounts to an arbitrary and insidious
system of circumventing another right specifically guaranteed by the
constitution: the right of the children of foreigners born in The Bahamas to
apply for Bahamian citizenship when they turn 18. Mitchell should know full
well that dozens of children to whom this right applies have been rounded up
and removed from the country, most likely never to return, before they have
even had a chance to apply. Many likewise may have been in the process of
applying, and – worst of
all – some have been removed from the
country who did all that was legally required of them, applied for citizenship
at the prescribed time, then sat waiting for years in limbo as a result of
government ineptitude. Spiriting people away in a manner that prevents them
from accessing a constitutionally-guaranteed process is the definition of
acting in bad faith.
• Mitchell is
correct to point out that there must be reasonable suspicion of a law being
broken before an individual can be detained by the authorities. He was
completely incorrect however, to suggest that this is what is taking place in
The Bahamas. The GBHRA has heard dozens of testimonials in the last few weeks
from Haitians and Haitian-Bahamians about indiscriminate raids on entire
communities, and check-points set up at busy intersections. These practices
amount to casting a net over large groups of people, then sorting the ‘wheat from
the chaff’ afterwards, behavior which is the
complete opposite of the standard of reasonable suspicion, and which violates
the rights of everyone questioned or detained in this manner. In addition, we
remind the minster that other aspects of constitutionally-mandated due process
are being ignored, including the right to legal counsel, the right to apply for
bail, the right to trial and the presumption of innocence. Again, the GBHRA
invites all members of the public who have been inconvenienced in any way to
join a class action lawsuit against the government which we are currently
preparing.
• It is good
that the minister invited the International Human Rights Commission and the OAS
to visit the Detention Center; no doubt this will lead to considerable
improvements in conditions there in the short term. Indeed, unconfirmed reports
suggest work may have begun within hours of Mitchell’s speech.
At the same time, the GBHRA demands an explanation of why its own repeated
requests for a tour of the facility, along with similar calls from other human
rights activists and members of the local press, have been either been
completely ignored or rejected outright. If there has been nothing to hide all
along, why the years upon years of secrecy?
• It was
disingenuous of Mitchell to conflate the GBHRA’s characterizations of the new policy
and conditions at the centre as equivalent to“mass murder” and “gas chambers”. It was
never claimed that the government of The Bahamas was executing detainees. What
was asserted however, what that the policy amounts to ethnic cleansing and that
the center boasts conditions reminiscent of a concentration camp. Regardless of
the connotations with which Mitchell would like to load these words,
mischaracterizing the association’s message, in point of fact, “ethnic
cleansing” is defined simply as “the
systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory
with the intent of making it ethnically or religiously homogeneous”. Genocide
is but one tool used historically to achieve this aim. Deportation and forcible
displacement are by far the more commonly used methods. The definition of
concentration camp, meanwhile, is: “a type of prison where large numbers
of people who are not soldiers are kept during a war and are usually forced to
live in very bad conditions”.
Based on these standard definitions, the association stands by its comments.
• Mitchell’s failure to
thoroughly discuss during his speech, the claims of beatings and abuse meted
out by Immigration or Defense Force officers over the last several weeks can
most generously be characterized as an egregious and irresponsible oversight.
The details of these cases have been widely covered in the local press, and as
the minister has admitted in another forum, the department is in possession of
at least one formal complaint. It is also important to note here that despite
Mitchell’s earlier
suggestions to the contrary, many of those who have complained of mistreatment
are not illegal immigrants at all, but rather citizens of this country who hold
Bahamian passports – a fact which
itself disproves the claim that detentions are not indiscriminate.
The
GBHRA cautions the government that is only a matter of time before the full
truth of this matter is revealed. If Mitchell and his colleagues remain on
their current course, the country will be exposed to shame and embarrassment
before the entire world.
The
GBHRA urges the Christie administration to acknowledge the illegality of its
current immigration enforcement policy, and move swiftly to replace it with a
system that is rational, humane, and in accordance with the rule of law. As
Minister Mitchell himself told the OAS, in a tourism-based economy such as
ours, reputation is everything.