The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

HaItians were brought into Abaco in the early 90s to work the 3,000-acre Bahamas Star Citrus Farm. They were more or less treated as slave labour and treated cruelly and paid a pittance. They worked behind barb wire topped fencing with gates padlocked from 5pm to 9am. Without the Haitians there would have been no citrus farm.

When the citrus groves failed, they took up jobs “beneath” the status of Bahamians such as gardeners, domestic workers. One quote from a Reverend Carlton Dorsett in April ‘93 states: “If 60 percent of the Haitians were repatriated from Marsh Harbour, businesses would collapse.” After Hurricane Dorian many Haitians lost everything as their main shanty town, The Mud, was destroyed.

Being resilient as marginalised communities often are they got on with it. Life is tough and cruel living in a society which very much considers them as second class citizens. Their role is to provide cheap labour and to do jobs Bahamians just won’t do. It is without doubt a dilemma for the government as to how you deal with the emergence of new shanty towns. Between a rock and a hard place.

The Bahamas purports to be a Christian country? Haitians are human beings and therefore our brothers and sisters. In Abaco they have made themselves essential workers and essential to the economy a fact which riles Bahamians, but regardless it’s true.

Haitians are excluded from the normal economic social ladder. They would not be entertained at a local bank for a mortgage as an example. It’s an act of extreme cruelty and severely anti-christian to destroy their shanty dwellings as this government has just done.

It’s also the height of hypocrisy as this government knows the Haitians are very much needed for Abaco to function. To throw men, women and children to the wolves in such a manner is despicable.

There are thousands of acres of Crown land in Abaco sitting empty and practically worthless. Why doesn’t the government have the intelligence to donate a few hundred acres to the Haitian community?

Some fast track loose but enforced conditions could be imposed to ensure structures are solid and sanitary. What’s the alternate to continuously bulldoze their homes? It’s so illogical as in the final analysis the Haitians are remaining in Abaco and in the long term should be fully integrated into our society. That surely is the Christian thing to do?

THE REALIST

Nassau,

April 16, 2021.