By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

IMMIGRATION Minister Keith Bell said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees does not fully understand this country’s process for dealing with asylum-seekers.

The Commissioner has urged The Bahamas not to detain asylum-seekers and to find alternative ways of accommodating them.

In a report the body drafted before the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) reviews our human rights record tomorrow, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said the government should detain asylum-seekers and refugees only under “circumstances where it is necessary, reasonable, and proportionate to the legitimate purpose achieved and justified by international law”.

 The UNHRC said refugees should not be detained or punished for unlawfully entering a country.

 In response yesterday, Mr Bell said: “The only thing I will say to that is that it appears to me that they do not fully understand the process in the first place when they make such a statement. That’s all I will say. It’s apparent to me that they don’t understand the process. I don’t want to say too much at this stage now because it’s something obviously which is under review and at the appropriate time a statement would be issued.”

 “It’s apparent to me from their statements that they do not fully appreciate the entire process, the entire process when persons come to The Bahamas through illegal means and claim one form or the other of some sort of status. They obviously don’t understand.”

 Mr Bell noted that The Bahamas signed the United Nations Convention and Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees in 1993.

 “The FNM administration signed us on in 199(3), and there are certain obligations thereunder, but nevertheless, it isn’t something that this government is prepared to look at right now, for us to entertain,” he said.

 In 2021, seven asylum-seekers sued the government over their detention, including a mother separated from her young child for over a year.

 The people had fled Cameroon  fearing persecution. They were kept at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre from May 2019 and were released in April 2021.

 They told reporters they were shocked by the “brutal and hostile” treatment they received and said they were traumatised by their experience.

 It is unclear whether there are currently asylum-seekers detained in The Bahamas. Still, Mr Bell said he is certain there are none at the Detention Centre in a similar position to the Cameroon nationals.

 “There is a whole lot that goes into ensuring that when persons come into this country through illegal means, irregular means, that we do our due diligence to ensure that we protect the national interest and security of this country and our people,” he said.

 “That is paramount, and so whomever comes to this country illegally, regardless of what they may claim, we have to do what is in the best interest and for the protection of our people in this country.”