ELSWORTH Johnson in Parliament. Photo: Donovan McIntosh/Tribune Staff
By LEANDRA ROLLE
Tribune Staff Reporter
lrolle@tribunemedia.net
HUMAN Rights Bahamas yesterday slammed Immigration Minister Elsworth Johnson after he accused the United Nations of lacking balance for criticising the government’s plans to demolish shanty towns in Abaco.
In a scathing statement released yesterday, the human rights watchdog group called the minister’s recent comments “reckless” and “inflammatory” and added his “confrontational attitude” towards the UN is reflective of the “stubborn attitude” of so many former administrations.
“This mulish pose continues to be an embarrassment to The Bahamas on the world stage,” the group said.
“His argument seems to amount to: ‘The international community should go fix Haiti before they bother us.’ First of all, the majority of the individuals in question are not Haitian, but Bahamian citizens or lawful permit holders, as his government’s own studies have shown.
“Secondly, the long suffering families in question would not be in their current predicament if his government had done something to provide some form of shelter or plan for a path to long-term housing for those who lost everything in Hurricane Dorian. How will it benefit the Bahamas to push these families into the street?”
Rights Bahamas said Mr Johnson ought to be reminded that the Bahamas is a member of the UN Human Rights Council, representing CARICOM of which the Republic of Haiti is a member.
The group also went on to accuse the Minnis administration of being discriminatory towards the Haitian community and having a hidden agenda.
“The government of the Bahamas cannot continue to pretend that their Abaco home demolition plan is about building standards, when it is quite obviously and blatantly a discriminatory effort to destroy communities of a particular ethnic background,” the group continued.
“The continued references to Haiti highlights this fact, as does their failure to apply the same extreme policy to other communities that suffer the very same building code deficiencies.”
On Friday, UN experts urged the government to halt its plans to demolish dozens of homes in shanty towns in Abaco, calling it a “serious violation of the human right to adequate housing” that will likely result in increased homelessness and extreme poverty.
However, in response, Mr Johnson said officials were just enforcing the law, explaining shanty town structures do not adhere to the nation’s current building code practices.
The minister also criticised the UN for lacking balance in its assessment of the country’s shanty town issue.
“There’s no notice that goes out to those individuals who are constructing irregular construction and those who intend to do it,” Mr Johnson said on Sunday.
“You’d expect that the UN would say ‘those of you who are now doing it and you have no legal authority, stop because it’s injurious to the country as a whole.’ The Haitian community has said it. You’d expect the UN now to say that for those persons who find themselves in the Bahamas, it’s a sovereign and democratic country governed by laws.”
In April, the Ministry of Works spearheaded the demolition of 45 “incomplete and unoccupied structures” in The Farm after conducting a joint sting operation in the unregulated community weeks earlier.
Last week, Minister of Works Desmond Bannister said the government was ready to continue its actions in the community which could begin as early as this week.
When The Tribune contacted locals to find out if any demolition works were underway in the area, many told this newspaper that no buildings were being demolished.
However, they claimed that some workers were seen in the area, marking certain structures.
Yesterday, Abaco resident and activist, Frankie Fleuridor told The Tribune he receives multiple calls daily from shanty town residents who are fearful and uncertain as to where they will go after their homes have been demolished.
The situation is also compounded by the island’s housing crisis, which has been a major issue since Hurricane Dorian in 2019.
“They said they’re going to destroy the house but where are these folks going to go? There’s no shelter, we can’t find no place in Abaco to rent. We have a housing problem,” he told this newspaper. “I have people from The Farm call me every day. They calling me to find out if the people coming. . . and if they’re going to demolish the homes because they put the last paper on these homes that’s built.
“The people are stressed right out right now and they don’t know what they’re going to do because you have people living in Abaco living in tents. You have folks who are still living in cars. I don’t agree with them building like that and the government had said they don’t want shanty towns in Abaco, but they don’t have no plan.”
In 2018, the Supreme Court granted an injunction protecting shanty town homes in New Providence from destruction pending the outcome of a judicial review challenge over the matter.
Government officials, however, have said newly built homes in The Farm and elsewhere are not subject to that injunction.
Comments
bahamianson 2 years, 11 months ago
boy, I tell you, if you say nothing, they say you are not doing a good job, if you say something, they say you are a bully. people, get a life.
tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago
Why do the leaders of this Human Rights Bahamas organization hide behind a statement released to the press? And why has The Tribune failed to name them? They should all be most ashamed of themselves for siding with UN bureacrats against the interests of the Bahamian people.
tribanon 2 years, 11 months ago
Repost of my concerns expressed yesterday about The Tribune's chief editor:
True to form, The Tribune's chief editor has the audacity to suggest that Bahamians who want these illegal and unsafe shanty towns eradicated are inhumane. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the very opposite is true. It is inhumane to permit these shanty towns to exist. They are an electrical hazard, a fire hazard, a raw sewerage hazard, a dumping ground of hazardous material and contaminants, and so on. Frankly they are among the most over-crowded, dangerous and filthy places for adults to live, let alone young children.
And the problem is an ever growing one unless something is done about it once and for all. But The Tribune's chief editor seems to prefer nothing at all be done about the problem unless our bankrupt country somehow finds or builds suitable alternative housing for all of these law breaking shanty town dwellers. No recognition is given by Tribune's chief editor to the fact that doing so would only serve to invite many other impoverished foreign nationals to our shores for similar free housing, free education, free health care, etc., etc.
And of course The Tribune's chief editor turns a blind eye to the fact that in today's Bahamas there are many law abiding Bahamians who have it just as tough as these shanty town dwellers as they go about stuggling day in and day out, living with all of the uncertainties and misery that severe poverty usually brings. Nevertheless, the vast majority of these under privileged Bahamians thankfully do their best to abide by our country's laws and respect the property rights of others. If the employers of many of these exploited shanty town labourers are not willing to do more for or by them, then they will have to learn to do without them.
The Tribune's editorial staff need to open their eyes and realise that the teary-eyed-sympathy card they are always inclined to play in matters like this one only serves to exacerbate the problem. We live in a world today that is harsh to many, but none of us should be trying to make it harsher for others to come by making unreasonable and/or unrealistic suggestions, or simply by arguing for letting things remain as they are.
JokeyJack 2 years, 11 months ago
"Rights Bahamas said Mr Johnson ought to be reminded that the Bahamas is a member of the UN Human Rights Council, representing CARICOM of which the Republic of Haiti is a member."
So what does that mean? Bahamians need to all commit suicide to make room for Haitians?
"First of all, the majority of the individuals in question are not Haitian, but Bahamian citizens or lawful permit holders, as his government’s own studies have shown."
You sure they are not Japanese? Where yall get this stupid idea from? And if it is true then how come only Haitians making noise about it? You know the answer, because if a Bahamian should open his mouth and say he is living in an illegal establishment, he will be fine or arrested or otherwise dealt with by the law. If yall open ya mouth then the UN and every other cry-baby organization around world comes running like they heard a dog whistle.
JokeyJack 2 years, 11 months ago
P.S. Channel 10 from Florida was recently there in Abaco and interviewed the Haitians and reported their sad crybaby tales - but interviewed nobody else. A one-sided story. Did they hear about the man on Peter street who was sleeping on the sidewalk last week cause he had nowhere to sleep indoors? No, or course he not. That man must have a been a worthless Bahamian dog - not worthy of notice or report.
sheeprunner12 2 years, 11 months ago
It is hard to believe Ellsworth Johnson .......... he lives in a glass house (on Cowpen Road).
birdiestrachan 2 years, 11 months ago
The Bahamas and Bahamians are not embarrassed by Mr: Johnson's statements The Shantytown problems started before Dorian. Dorian has become the excuse Judicial reviews did not have the power to stop Dorian..
Rights Bahamas know that shantytowns are not adequate. housing and all this talk. about it is ok to break the laws of the Bahamas makes no sense.
TigerB 2 years, 11 months ago
Who are these people? They always seem to look at just one side of the coin.. where they people going if you knock down the houses... but they never ask where did they come from before building those houses...
licks2 2 years, 11 months ago
Hehehehehehehe. . .this group will never take a balance in anything that do not "go their way". . .TAKE US TOTHE WORLD COURT FELLAS . .they will not. . .why? THE BAHAMAS' ACTIONS ARE PROTECTED BY THOSE SAME CONVENTIONS THEY SHOUT ABOUT. . .LET THEM TALK!!!
licks2 2 years, 11 months ago
I am still seeing and hearing comments on this topic by local folks and it still seem that Bahamians are too ignorant on what, who, what they can do and what they can't do. So let me recommend that we go and down load the UN Charter and have a read. . .then yinna will see how "jokey" those so called UN experts are. . . including rights Bahamas. That document is THE HEADWATER that flowed out of the League of Nations following WW1!
All conventions, activities and official involvements in matters involving member states is clearly defined!!
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