The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

WORKS Minister Desmond Bannister has said his ministry continues to monitor the development of unregulated shanty towns across the country and is ready to act as soon as an opportunity presents itself.

In the meantime, Mr Bannister said officials will abide by the law until the court has made its final ruling on a judicial review centred on shanty town demolition.

“We are a law-abiding government. We abide by what the court says. We are still waiting on the ruling of the court on the issues before it and [whenever] the court makes a decision, we will be able to analyse it and take steps from there,” he told reporters ahead of yesterday’s Cabinet meeting.

The government was banned from evicting shanty town residents and demolishing homes in 2018 after a Supreme Court granted an injunction protecting shanty towns in New Providence as well as Abaco.

After Hurricane Dorian hit Abaco in 2019, the government sought to have the 2018 injunction varied to exclude Abaco shanty towns and their residents, insisting they no longer needed to be protected as the communities were virtually wiped out by the storm.

The government’s bid, however, was rejected in June after Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson ordered an extension of her injunction to include all unregulated communities in Abaco.

Her ruling came after the government launched a joint sting operation on the remaining shanty towns in Abaco and began demolishing newly built structures. Officials must now get approval from the court before demolishing any further structures.

Asked if he thought the ruling has emboldened more shanty town dwellers to erect illegal structures now that they have protection, Mr Bannister did not directly answer, saying he didn’t want to speak specifically to the ruling.

“I’m not going to criticise a court ruling because, you know, I’m a lawyer,” he said. “What’s important now is I want to send a message out that we are monitoring all these things that are happening and the minute there’s an opportunity to protect the health of the Bahamian people, we’re going to take that opportunity and we’re going to follow up with it because what is happening out there is unconscionable.”

Mr Bannister said his ministry continues to receive increasing reports about illegal structures springing up across the country and vowed to deal with the issue when the opportunity is made available.

“We have many reports, all over the place. All over New Providence, proliferating all over the Family Islands,” he said. “It’s going to impact your lives and as people who value what we have in this country, it’s going to be important for us to protect it. All of us and not just me as a minister. Every single one of us has an obligation to our children and grandchildren that we’re going to protect the water table.

“We’re going to protect the health and we’re going to do certain things to ensure that they could have the same similar type of standing that we’re going to have so it’s really critical that we get to the bottom of it and deal with these sorts of challenges.”

Due to health concerns surrounding shanty towns, Mr Bannister was also asked if the government is considering visiting the communities to offer COVID-19 vaccines to undocumented migrants who may be fearful about being deported.

To which, he replied: “Vaccination centres are not immigration centres.”