By KHRISNA VIRGIL
Deputy Chief Reporter
kvirgil@tribunemedia.net
DEPUTY Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis yesterday made a startling admission in the House of Assembly, saying Chinese nationals who entered the country to construct the $3.5bn Baha Mar resort had their passports and work permits withheld, adding that this was done as a means to “control” the foreign labourers.
While debating an amendment, which is considered companion legislation to the Trafficking in Persons Act, Mr Davis said the Christie administration was “concerned” that the workers’ documents had been “held” from their possession.
In a later interview with The Tribune, Mr Davis explained that the discovery was made some time after the Christie administration took office in 2012, and several complaints were “looked into”.
He said that he was not aware of whether the practice has continued, adding that a formal investigation would only follow complaints made to the Department of Immigration.
“[Penal code amendment] It stems from the amendment that was made to the Trafficking In Persons Act and the fundamental reason for the development and evolution of this specific offence, which has been dubbed an offence against humanity,” the Cat Island, Rum Cay and San Salvador MP told Parliament yesterday morning. “It really finds its genesis in the manner in which employers treat employees. It really evolved from the fact that employers still believe that their businesses are plantations. That’s the basis for it.
“Then, for example, the court in determining whether this offence has been committed, what they did with it if you look at it, it usually comes from the workplace because we were very concerned, for example, with the construction at Baha Mar when they had the foreign workers there. You will find that their passports were held (and) their work permits were held and that was a means to control them.”
As part of the Baha Mar deal, Parliament approved the issuance of 8,150 work permits for non-Bahamian construction workers, with a condition that no more than 5,000 permits would be utilised at any given time. Baha Mar’s general contractor is China Construction America.
Yesterday, Mr Davis added: “Apart from the fact that employees are concerned about keeping their jobs and they sometimes suffer under all sorts of conditions and suffer abuses, particularly where you have the foreign employer dealing with local employee. There are very often what I call cultural issues that exist and then there is this resistance and reluctance on the part of the foreign employer to at least, we would ask them to embrace our culture and at least understand it and when dealing with our local employees treat them with the dignity and respect they deserve. So, Mr Speaker, a number of our employees might find that what is happening to them might amount to an offence. It is like modern day slavery, which has been identified not just in the Bahamas, but around the world.”
When he rose to debate the amendment, Fort Charlotte MP Dr Andre Rollins veered from the Bill, pointing to government’s failure to make the Baha Mar documents public.
He urged the state to table the Baha Mar documents that are sealed in the Supreme Court, and suggested that the Christie administration has stalled in this regard as it did not want “damning” information in the public domain before a general election.
Dr Rollins said Bahamians deserved to know whether the Christie administration placed the country in the “bondage” of The People’s Republic of China for years and generations to come.
“The Baha Mar situation, please I ask this Honourable House lay the documents on the table,” Dr Rollins said, “We need to know what you promised the Chinese government. Not that we have a problem with the Chinese. The Chinese control these enterprises (and) they are called SOEs - State Owned Enterprises owned by the Chinese. We need to know what you promised the Chinese because as I was the first to say in this House if it is found that what you promised and committed us to is not in our interest we have a right to review.
“Now I can’t sell what I don’t own. I can’t. However, I am the one who establishes the legal framework and the parameters in which they must operate.”
“We need the details of Baha Mar and, Mr Speaker, we hope that those details are not damning, such that our country will be in bondage to the Chinese for years and generations to come,” Dr Rollins said.
Comments
Publius 7 years, 1 month ago
CCA employed the Chinese workers. But these miscreants tried to make it seem in Parliament as if Sarkis was the employer who withheld their documents, and nobody on the Opposition side corrected their wilful deception, or challenged them to state why they did not take this issue up with CCA if it concerned them so much.
TalRussell 7 years, 1 month ago
by TalRussell
DDK 7 years, 1 month ago
Never mind the withholding of personal documentation by the Government's 'partners', "Parliament approved the issuance of 8,150 work permits for non-Bahamian construction workers" - how COULD they with so many unemployed and struggling in this Bahamas?
Trust the voters go into the coming election with eyes wide open.
Publius 7 years, 1 month ago
And since everyone in Parliament voted yes to this at the time...
The_Oracle 7 years, 1 month ago
And I'll bet no NIB contributions were made by or for any Chinese national "enslaved here" by the PLP and their partners in human trafficking!
sheeprunner12 7 years, 1 month ago
The PLP government has become a "partner in crime" with the Chinese government ..... how can the Free World approve these Chinese -Third World psuedo-economic bondages????????
banker 7 years, 1 month ago
Ah no worries, we are used to slave labour. When the Cuban eye doctors came here, their families were held hostage to ensure their return.
I am sure that life is pretty miserable for the Chinese construction workers. No wonder they defecated in the unfinished rooms, and did shoddy workmanship. They were virtual prisoners in a land where they did not understand the language.
It's by no means uncommon though for lower paying jobs. My godmother's niece decided that she wanted to see the world and work. She worked as a nanny and was hired by a rich Arab family in Riyadh Saudi Arabia. They took her passport and work permit and "held it for safekeeping". They also monitored her Facebook account. She was able to get her family to say that her mother was dying and she needed to return home for a week. She left the country never to return.
sheeprunner12 7 years, 1 month ago
True ........... Bahamians have held Haitians as "slaves" for generations ..... Where do you think the "my Haitian" phrase came from????????
alfalfa 7 years, 1 month ago
Withholding of passports is a primary factor in retaining control of an individual, and is a common action revealed in most human trafficking cases. Is anyone being charged?
stoner 7 years, 1 month ago
My friend, it is against any constitution in the civilized world and a against what the Bahamians Institution stands for as a country to hold passports from any visitor or anyone one on a working permit. To do this to a visitor or someone who has to come and has been hired by a Company is the worst I have ever heard. A third world country would not have done this unless the person is a criminal. What is happening to this beautiful friendly independant country who broke away from the Commonwealth years ago. You are going back to the slave trade days.
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 1 month ago
For Brave Davis to confess that the Bahamian government was aware early on of the human rights abuses by the Red China government occurring on Bahamian soil but did nothing about it is tantamount to an admission that these abuses were sanctioned by the Bahamian government and, worse still, in the eyes of the world, the Bahamian people. The crimes committed here go well beyond the human rights abuses many claim the incarcerated at Fox Hill prison are subjected to. The CCA employees were foreign nationals on our soil who were effectively enslaved by their employer (CCA) with the knowledge and consent of the Bahamian government as a result of CCA taking custody and withholding their travel documents (passports) and work permits. This is unconscionable and violates numerous international accords on human rights abuses to which the Bahamas is a party. But true to form we do not hear a peep from Fred Mitchell, as Minister of Foreign Affairs, or Perry Christie, as Prime Minister, about the reasons why the Bahamas government allowed itself, by its own inaction, to play a duplicitous role in foreign nationals on Bahamian soil being subjected to abject conditions of forced labour that meet the very definitions of human bondage and slavery. And to think our DPM, Brave Davis, has effectively confirmed that these same human rights abuses are likely still going on in our country today with respect to CCA's employees engaged at the Baha Mar and The Pointe construction sites. This is truly unfathomable as we have here proof of Bahamian government officials confessing to having knowledge of, and participation (by omission of necessary action) in internationally recognized crimes of the highest order against foreign nations. Perry Christie truly belongs you know where!
Seaman 7 years, 1 month ago
No big deal........ This PLP have their supporters locked down in slavery..... They have been able to control the minds with the Idea that any other party other then the PLP will put them back in chains...... That won't work this time. The working women of this Country will vote them out. What say you Comrade Tal?
Alex_Charles 7 years, 1 month ago
Not matter what happens the PLP has a good chance of being successful. Although I may disagree with the execution of many of their initiatives and handling of several situations, I am positive there are even more persons that agree with all of it. I wouldn't be Surprised if the PLP got another super majority in the House. Question is, how will the Bahamian people vote?
Well_mudda_take_sic 7 years, 1 month ago
Marvin Pinder, an astute politician and former PLP MP himself in his day, apparently told his son, Ryan Pinder (the current PLP MP for Elizabeth Estates), to stay away from parliamentary proceedings lest he be tarred and feathered for life by the over-whelming anti-Perry Christie / anti-PLP sentiment that exists throughout our country today.
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