By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield says the Davis administration should focus on a more “sustained” and “deliberate” effort to crack down on the proliferation of shanty towns in the country.

Senator Henfield, who is on the ground in Abaco and has been there for the past three weeks observing the recently launched Department of Immigration Operation Expedition, said efforts should be ongoing.

He was contacted for comment the day after officials revealed that the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Royal Bahamas Defense Force were on the island conducting multiple shanty town raids from October 7 to 10.

The effort was in response to the growth of unregulated communities in Abaco, one of them - The Farm - mushrooming to 200 acres from 50 acres since 2019.

“It cannot be just the here and there effort to address the human cries of the public,” Senator Henfield said. “It has to be a sustained, deliberate effort to arrest and repatriate all those who do not have the proper documents to be in The Bahamas. Abaco is a place where we need a sustained presence by Immigration.

“Not only eliminate the irregular communities, which are dangerous, which we saw in the fire in The Mudd (shanty town in Abaco set on fire in 2018), it must be much more than the platitudinous effort to satisfy public inquiry, it has to be ongoing.”

Mr Henfield questioned Immigration Minister Keith Bell’s statements on Wednesday, during a press conference, where he echoed statements he made earlier this month that immigration is not at crisis level in The Bahamas, but is instead a “complex problem”.

“Minister Keith Bell, I don’t know if he’s visited Abaco since he’s been in office. But he’d be wise to come and visit Abaco. Come and have a look for yourself,” Mr Henfield said.

“It’s concerning to me as a former member of Parliament, as a Senator of the Free National Movement and it’s concerning for the current MPs that sit for Abaco. Both North and South MPs for Abaco have also indicated their concern about these growing communities. So, (he should) come and have a look for himself and then make comments on it.”

Mr Henfield said his former ministry had started to tackle the immigration issue in 2019 but were stopped by the courts.

“We had begun in the last administration to address these communities in Abaco. We were stopped by the courts and then we were kicked out of office. And so, the communities continued to grow.

“Right now, it’s extraordinary, when you pass, and you see the size of these developments. It speaks to another problem that is brewing, not only in Abaco, but all across the country, where people can just go and set up on Crown land and build unfettered by officials,” he said.

In 2019, Mr Henfield agreed with former Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis’ assertions that illegal immigration was a threat to The Bahamas, saying the country must not sit idly by and allow it to be “overtaken” by another country.

“We’ve been grappling with this problem for the last 50 years,” he said in 2019. “Bahamians have been, in my estimation, quite tolerant.”