By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

PRIME Minister Philip “Brave” Davis said the recent shantytown court outcome allows officials to employ the process to correct those issues within those communities.

 He was responding to Friday’s event that found the demolition of shantytown properties and evictions of residents can resume after a Supreme Court Justice lifted a previous injunction when residents failed to prove such actions would be unlawful.

 Justice Cheryl Grant-­Thompson ruled on the “matter of national importance” at the conclusion of a legal battle filed in 2018, with 177 shanty town residents represented by Fred Smith, KC, in a bid to stop government intervention and demolition.

 Asked what the implications mean moving forward for the government, Mr Davis explained: “What it means is it now allows us to employ the process to correct those issues within the shantytown. There’s a process for removal of any erection of buildings we intend to engage in those and then deal with those issues that impact us in respect to that issue.”

 The Prime Minister was also pressed on the justice’s rejection of a judicial review application.

 He stated: “It means that the case is now through on that level, I don’t know whether they appeal. I know the other side can appeal. We hope that doesn’t happen and we just sit down and work out these issues.”

 The Bahamas has been recently battling with an influx of illegal migration from Haiti and Cuba. There have been calls for the government to do more on the immigration matter with the prime minister arguing again that his administration has been doing the best it can.

“First of all, we do have a plan moving forward. The issue of migration, Haitian migration, is nothing new. It ebbs and flows from pre-emancipation and the challenges with the migration has always been topical. Right, it ebbs and flows,” he said.

“Governments are engaged as best they can in dealing with it. We are dealing with as best we can. We are sending people back home by the thousands and we are intercepting attempts to get into our country and turning them back home. That’s what we need to look at. What are we doing.

 “Last year, near 3,500 migrants have returned to Haiti. This year, we all that were intercepted we have returned back to Haiti. Right now, I think we have less than 100 in our detention centre. So we are returning them home as quickly as we can.”

 He noted interceptions are continuing.

 “They are intercepting - there’s a border wall that’s been almost erected between those three agencies. And it’s very difficult to get by them and it’s been proven very successful over the last year.”

 Mr Davis has spoken on an international level about the problems in Haiti, a country facing political instability. The Prime Minister previously stated the crisis in that country poses a substantial threat to The Bahamas due to an increase in irregular migration.

 He told a summit in Argentina that with the support and leadership of Haiti, regional counterparts can help Haitians build a path out of the crisis.

 He said: “As I said, that’s very topical. Right now, I have to leave because a very important call with the prime minister from Canada who is coming. We’re looking at how we can intervene with their leadership. The Caribbean community itself don’t have the capacity to deal with issue that’s occurring in Haiti at this time, so do we need international help.

 “When I was at the OAS, I met with the French ambassador who has indicated their willingness to come and assist. So it’s just a question of crafting the plan for that assistance and getting the legal and moral authority to move in the way that we wish.”

 In June 2021, the government was banned from further demolishing shanty town structures across Abaco after a Supreme Court judge rejected its bid to have the island’s shanty towns removed as beneficiaries of a standing injunction centred on demolition of unregulated communities.