RIGHTS Bahamas has criticised recent comments Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis made about eradicating shanty towns, saying “the level of hypocrisy” involved in Dr Minnis’ remarks regarding Haitian ethnic communities is “simply staggering”.

On Sunday, Dr Minnis said it would be “unjust and unfair” to allow shanty towns to remain and recommitted his government to the task of clearing those communities.

Dr Minnis referred to a national commitment to social justice, adding there is also a moral imperative for the removal of shanty towns as the government is simultaneously engaged in immigration reform. A court injunction is currently in place blocking the evictions pending a court hearing. 

“Because we are one Bahamas,” Dr Minnis said, “and because we are committed to social justice, we are removing shanty towns, a long-standing problem successive governments failed to address in a comprehensive manner.

“Last year, my administration set up a large task force carefully planned for the removal of shanty towns so that we can better assimilate the residents of these areas, and help to improve the quality of life of residents.

“We have been careful to address this issue in a comprehensive, careful, and compassionate manner. When (I) spoke to the league of Haitian pastors some months ago, I told them that our aim is to improve the lives of all those affected by what we are doing.”

However, Rights Bahamas (RB) said “there is no such thing as a ‘comprehensive, careful and compassionate’ way to forcibly evict someone from their home and relocate them against their will. This is brute force and coercion, pure and simple.”

The advocacy group added: “The government can try to sugarcoat this matter all it likes; it will not change the fact that what they are seeking to do constitutes a gross violation of people’s fundamental human rights under the constitution.

“These people do not want to be forced to live somewhere else, they do not want the authorities to break up their close knit communities, built over generations through mutual help and support. They do not want to be forced to live among strangers. And no one, the government included, has the right to arbitrarily force them to do so.

“Dr Minnis’ claim that the conditions in Haitian ethnic communities necessitate their destruction is the epitome of duplicitousness. The government’s own white paper on Over-the-Hill reform acknowledges that the same sanitary, infrastructure, construction and land title issues exist in traditional Bahamian communities, but these are not slated for demolition. Instead, they are to be improved and rehabilitated. Why the double standard? Why only those of Haitian ethnicity have their homes destroyed? It can only be a case of discrimination based on ethnicity. That is a grave violation of the most fundamental rights enshrined in our constitution and no amount of false rhetoric or fake compassion can justify or excuse it.”

On August 5, the Supreme Court ordered the government and utility providers to halt any planned service disconnections or evictions in shanty towns pending a judicial review of the Minnis administration’s policy to eradicate those communities.

Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson granted the interlocutory injunction just days ahead of the government’s August 10 deadline during a telephone conference with human rights attorney Fred Smith, QC, and Attorney General Carl Bethel.

Mr Bethel later told the Senate the government has hired a team of high-powered lawyers headed by Harvey Tynes, QC, to take on Mr Smith and his team in the matter.

The government has maintained that the majority of shanty town dwellers in New Providence are residing on Crown land designated for farming and therefore they have no legal right to be there.