‘DO WE WANT TO LIVE LIKE HAITI?’: Bannister fires back at UN, warning of danger ignoring shanty towns

MINISTER of Works Desmond Bannister speaking yesterday. Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff

As of Wednesday, May 12, 2021

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

WORKS Minister Desmond Bannister said Bahamians must decide if they want to live in a country like The Bahamas or a country like Haiti where there is “dirt, garbage, shanty towns all over the place”.

He also said exercises involving shanty towns in New Providence will be conducted soon as residents have complained about illegal structures springing up.

He was responding to a critical statement that experts from the United Nations released on Friday about the government’s planned demolitions of houses in The Farm shanty town in Abaco.

The UN said the planned evictions and demolitions violate human rights to adequate housing.

Mr Bannister said: “When I saw that, there were two questions I asked myself. The first question is, what is in the best interest of the Bahamian people whose interest I am supposed to represent? And then the other question is, what are the consequences of me not doing my job?

“Consequences of me not doing my job is that we could have a spread of E.Coli in Abaco. Water could be contaminated and people could be sick.

ONE of the buildings being demolished in The Farm in Abaco last month.

“We could have the constant widespread anarchy in our country where people decide they are gonna go on other people’s land and take it over. And I can tell you that complaints in New Providence and elsewhere have increased. I have a number of complaints from Bahamians who are saying that when they go to their property now they are meeting shanty houses. We are going to have to conduct an exercise in New Providence because of that, very soon.

“It has come to a point where we have to decide whether we are gonna have a society like The Bahamas or we are going to have a society like Haiti and if any of you have been to Haiti, you’d see what happens there - dirt, garbage, shanty towns all over the place. We have to decide if that’s what we want and if we (don’t) want that, we have to decide if we are gonna take a stance in the interest of our country.”

The Supreme Court in 2018 granted an injunction protecting shanty town homes in New Providence from destruction pending an outcome of a judicial review over the matter. Government officials have said homes in The Farm and elsewhere are not subject to that injunction. The Ministry of Works spearheaded the demolition of 45 “incomplete and unoccupied” structures in The Farm in April.

“I’m just carrying out my job based on The Bahamas,” Mr Bannister said yesterday. “If those folks want to make a statement about The Bahamas, then I think as a country, as we are deporting people, if they want them to come to their neighbourhood and put a shanty town in their neighbourhood… that’s what you should ask them.

“How would they feel if in their neighbourhood there is a shanty town with faeces going in the ground water with the potential for people to get sick, with all the challenges where you go on your land, and someone is out there putting up a shanty town house? I’d like you to ask them these questions when they raise these issues about The Bahamas because we’re just trying to live in law and order and we’re just trying to protect the welfare of Bahamians.”

SP 2 years, 11 months ago

"Do we want to live like Haiti" is a redundant question. We the people have been begging successive governments to get serious about shantytowns for decades!

Pindling, Ingraham, and Christie love affairs and profiting from Haitians was always top agenda while the Bahamas and Bahamians were totally Ignored. These three treasonous stooges obviously had no problem keeping the country on the path of making us "live like Haitians" which is among the most predominant reasons why we the people voted their lousy asses DEEP into the political wilderness!

JokeyJack 2 years, 11 months ago

Until employers are fined very very large fines, the problem wont go away.

Emilio26 2 years, 11 months ago

JokeyJack I think Immigration Minister Elsworth Johnson needs to issue a temporary ban on all work permit holders from Haiti for two years so we can properly assess who belongs in this country from who doesn't belong here. I remember when the Turks and Caicos did this a few years back and there was outrage from the UN as well but the government of turks and caicos paid them no mind.

DWW 2 years, 11 months ago

there are certain places in the world where the onus is placed upon the employer who is profiting from the illegal activities. The pirates and secrets Bahamas encourages lawlessness by letting the employers get away with it while scapegoating the migrant. if there were no jobs they would not be here. consider Long Island...

mandela 2 years, 11 months ago

Areas like over the hill Bainstown, the grove, Centerville .eg. should be the closest we ever get to having a shanty town, Mr Minister of works for once at least on this you are right, either we want to end up like Haiti full of shanty towns at every turn with no law or order for the building code, the emergence of a city within a city, a shantytown is a town within itself, had we older Bahamians made the decision when Loftus Roker asked the same question as Mr Bannister we would not be in this situation today or at least have better control. Bahamians are made to pay for land and construction. Bahamas, Bahamians, if shantytowns are allowed as the UN and other outsiders would like to see happen and have sanctioned, there will be a Tsunami of illegals because they would have a place to live and hide, and in 20yrs the Bahamas and Bahamians would be unrecognizable, we are in this predicament now because we allowed shantytowns to grow then. I am not able to smuggle in and set up a house, shop in someone else's country. Mr. Minister of work if this is your job please do it and do it quickly. Looking at completed and uncompleted homes in the Farm area, the appliances, generators, etc. if they can find the money for building materials, generators, applianceses, they can find the money for an apartment or some suitable living condition like the rest of us has to. Over 28m was sent out from the Bahamas to Haiti by their countrymen in 2019.

DDK 2 years, 11 months ago

How much of that $28m to you suppose went to the smugglers bringing the illegals into OUR Country and to those who 'don't see' the smuggling operations? Probably a goodly portion.

John 2 years, 11 months ago

Do we want to live like Haiti? The facts are a lot of people living in the Shantytowns are Bahamians or legal residents. And whilst not seeking to justify shantytowns, many of the structures are better constructed and in better condition than many of the houses in Bain and Grants Town and in some other areas including some family islands where the roofs are caving in and there are no floors. There is a serious issue with low income housing in this country. And until officials address that problem then the issue of shantytowns will persist. Remember there use to be ‘yards’ or ‘lots’ in The inner city with several wooden structures on them. Then government issued orders that either these ‘yards’ had to be equipped with toilets and running water it they had to be torn down. Some landlords chose to have their structures torn down and others tried to outfit theirs with common toilets, only to discover that was impossible to manage. So they, too, eventually tore down their wooden houses to replace with more expensive apartments. Some left the property vacant, So in the main time persons who were displaced had to find alternative housing. Many moved in with friends who were staying on farms on Cowper or Carmichael or Joe Farrington Road or other areas. More residents meant the need for more structures. Hence shantytowns )in Nassau) we’re born. Out of necessity, the mother of invention . Government also tried its hand at low cost rental units, only too, to find the management of them is almost impossible. So how long will this break dow, build back game run on?

JokeyJack 2 years, 11 months ago

Yes, there is a serious issue with low income housing - because every "house" that pops up is occupied by a Haitian. Remember there are 12 million of them down there just waiting for the next boat to come up. Maybe we should impose a $100/gallon gasoline tax (yes one hundred dollars per gallons) to help to pay for the additional costs of housing and health and schooling etc for Haitians in this country. Good idea? If it were a referendum, I would vote YES for sure. Only then will people get a true feeling for the magnitude and stupidity of the problem.

sweptaway 2 years, 11 months ago

Just wondering how the lucayans and Arawacs feel about this situation of all the foreigner's living on their rightful lands . History !

Islandgirl 2 years, 11 months ago

Interesting question, however, irrelevant to the matter at hand.

GodSpeed 2 years, 11 months ago

Well you see what happened to them right? They're dead and gone, do you want that to be Bahamians?

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

Minnis is no different than Pindling, Ingraham and Christie when it comes to the great love affair our political leaders have had and continue to have with the already enormous and rapidly growing Haitian community in our country. All of these political leaders, yes, Davis too, have never fervently argued for meaningful and sustained actions and measures to be taken to prevent the ongoing invasion of our small nation by overwhelming numbers of lawbreaking Haitian nationals.

The only reason we now see Elsworth Johnson and Desmond Bannister huffing and puffing in a most insincere and hollow way about these shanty town communities is because survey polls conducted by pollsters for the FNM party have revealed this matter, and the way it's closely linked to the decades old problem of the massive influx of Haitian nationals with no regard whatsoever for our nation's laws, to be one of the hottest election issues on the minds of most Bahamian voters.

Just ask yourself the following simply questions to understand why this huffing and puffing is nothing but pre-election theatrics by Minnis:

Question # 1: Why did the Minnis-led administration fail to address this vexing major national security problem very early on after winning the May 2017 national general election?

Question #2: Why has the Minnis-led administration still not done anything to root-out all of the corruption that exists in certain government departments and agencies which illegally sell under the table the legal documents that many of the Haitian shanty town dwellers require to remain in our country indefintely?

Question # 3: Why is it Haitian nationals who have illegally entered our country are not rounded up (searched for) on a regular and sustained basis, and promptly deported back to Haiti?

Question # 4: Why is it our government does not simply revoke the work permits and/or other residency papers of the shanty town dwellers who have broken so many of our laws by virtue of illegally residing in these most unsafe and unhealthy makeshift communities?

Question # 5: Why are the employers who exploit these lawbreaking Haitian nationals not held responsible and accountable for their own illegal exploitative acts?

Question # 6: How is it we've heard no pre-election huffing and puffing by Frankie Campbell, Darren Henfield and Hubert Minnis himself on the matter of the UN and others siding with these lawbreaking shanty town dwellers and against the Bahamian people? Does the cat have their tongue?

Question # 7: How is it our elected leaders always fail to put before our courts, in an aggressive and cogent way, the appropriate and sensible legal, safety and health arguments that so clearly warrant and justify the demolition of existing, and the prevention of future, shanty town communities? In other words, why do our senior elected officials always seem to conveniently let the likes of Fred Smith get the better of the government in our court system?

Emilio26 2 years, 11 months ago

Tribanon I'm surprised Fred Smith hasn't been disbarred by the Bahamas Bar Association as yet because the way we speaks against bahamians and the bahamas goes to show that his loyalty lies with the haitian people.

TalRussell 2 years, 11 months ago

Only now that all roads to the realm's 33 shantytown properties are leading to Unified Private Partnership Development (UPPD) - are they receiving the full force and power Thee Mr. Minnis's red regime's works minister and the attorney general.
Comrades, you just couldn't possibly have made up that such UPPD seriousness has even served as a wokeup call for the red chamber's Senator Ranard who was only awoken one time before when he awakes if even 'twas for a slight moment from a deep sleep back on a day in the month of June 2017, when em's rose up to be affixing feets firmly to the Chamber's red carpet to lend voice to shout that, “I’m Not a Red Senator, yes?

DDK 2 years, 11 months ago

Good for Bannister on this one!!

TalRussell 2 years, 11 months ago

@ComradeDDK, difficulty accessing how you arrived at your Desmond stance when it's the minister's own indecisiveness - excuse after excuse - towards the realm's 33 shantytowns has gotten him into trouble.
I keep reminding that it takes a village of corrupted officials to establish 33 shantytowns of which could not have sprung up, unless those in authority, turned looked the other away...and the only makes sense reason is officials at many levels were directly/indirectly corrupted, yes?

DWW 2 years, 11 months ago

you refering to PLP and Pinding I am sure

TalRussell 2 years, 11 months ago

I'm referring to all the children born on the day of Comrade Lynden Oscar's death will turn 21 years old in but 106 days...and some 208,333 of those living in amongst the 493,33 of today's PopoulacesCommoners,** were not even around, yes?

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

Tal should be referring to the FNM party and both Hubert Minnis and Desmond Bannister, as well as others like Carl Bethel, Elsworth Johnson, Darren Henfield, Frankie Campbell, and so on. They're all part of this shanty town problem we have today, and they're the only ones in a position to do something about it.

DDK 2 years, 11 months ago

Sigh, yes, Comrade! Just that he is finally sticking to his guns!

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

Minnis and Bannister are two peas in a pod. Neither of them should be trusted to make good on their posturing and promises with a national general election looming large. I therefore seriously doubt any major headway will be made by the Minnis-led FNM administration towards actually demolishing and eradicating of any of these shanty towns before the outcome of the next national general election is known. Minnis and Bannister will simply do much more huffing and puffing as they continue to kick this can down the road.

TalRussell 2 years, 11 months ago

My Comrades, the then believed to be in full operational mode Shantytowns, never even got briefly mentioned in the Redcoatys' 2017 General Election Manifesto.
But a majority priority pledge that was listed and aggressively campaigned on was a pledge that if elected, was the commitment to launch what was anticipated to become the largest migration of Out Islanders, returning back home to the 1200 Out Islands, Cays, and Rocks.
The reality turned out to be to the contrary of what was to occur on the ground with the Abaco's seeing its PopoulacesCommoners' (PC), dwindling by some 3,933, and Ragged Island's PC, dropping to 18,
Yes, indeed, the story is still ongoing where the largest migration pledge has now been replaced by many thousands of Out Islanders, lining up lil something to eat, yes?

WETHEPEOPLE 2 years, 11 months ago

This is a story for the ages, if you build it they will come, and sometimes they will come and then build it. Protect the borders and destroy all shanty towns.

GodSpeed 2 years, 11 months ago

An army of Haitians are employed over here. The Bahamas is not serious about getting rid of them. If the government was serious they'd put heavy fines on businesses that hire them and create a very vocal campaign rewarding anyone who finds Haitians working for a Bahamian.

TalRussell 2 years, 11 months ago

Hasn't happened to our own kind yet learned any lessons resulting from Hurricane Dorian and now COVID - how close we've come to be next fleeing the Homeland's army of the economically challenged.
Before this week alone ends - many thousands of the PopoulacesCommeners' will queue up in anticipation of a meal or lil bag of groceries, paycheques, pensions, employer-provided health plans, and savings security blanket yanked out from under them, and yet they rush thoughtlessly of the pain and suffering whilst chauffeured driven in a free motor car off to address the media with bragging rights about another $600.000 spent on jazzing up the office of the prime minister, yes?

jamesg30 2 years, 11 months ago

In our god loving country, one would only hope that illegal Haitian shanty occupants would be humanly repatriated to Haiti before we just start tearing their homes down. To just go in and tear them down with poor adults and children living in these structures is evil and not in the spirit of the Jesus so many of us praise our love to. In fact it is sadistic. Yes, this is a real problem, but to go at it with a wrecking ball is inhumane and unchristian like conduct.

TalRussell 2 years, 11 months ago

And, they can't wait to brag how they will return before the daybreak with the military and wrecking bulldozers in tow.
May their God be more Christian acting towards them and their families. Hell is too cold this bunch.
Should they be welcomed to sit in the same Sunday morning church pews alongside the real Christians? They are In dire need of hourly on their knees confession times before their Jesus and his clergy representatives, yes?

tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago

Save it for the government of Haiti which apparently doesn't care about its own people. If they did, they would send planes to The Bahamas to pick them up. But instead the government of Haiti sees these illegal Haitian immigrants in The Bahamas as a source of hard currency for Haiti because they usually send as many US dollars as they possibly can back to their family members who remained in Haiti. And its these same US dollars that then get paid to the human traffickers to bring even more Haitian nationals into our country illegally. Enough is enough!

The_Oracle 2 years, 11 months ago

Judge a people by how they treat the least of themselves. We have been crappy stewards of what we were given. (yes given, granted, we did not fight for it, contrary to what has been taught propagated and believed). Even the laws on the books, all valid and good were disregarded in favor of tribal allegiances and personal treasury pillage. Zero enforcement. Zero care in the world. Zero ethics in leadership. Zero accountability. We dropped the Union Jack, raised our flag and faced west towards the US dollar. Zero Pride where once we had reason to be proud.

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