The Bahamas government has welcomed the ruling of the Supreme Court lifting a previous injunction when shanty town residents failed to prove the demolition of properties and evictions of residents would be unlawful.
“What it means is it now allows us to employ the process to correct those issues within the shanty town. 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,” Prime Minister Phillip Davis said.
Last Friday, Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson ruled on the “matter of national importance” at the conclusion of a legal battle dating back to 2018, when 177 shanty town residents represented by Fred Smith, KC, sought to stop the government intervention and demolition.
Prime Minister Davis said the ruling means the case is now through on that level, even as he acknowledged he doesn’t know if there will be an appeal.
“I know the other side can appeal. We hope that doesn’t happen and we just sit down and work out these issues.”
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.
The shanty towns have sprung up mainly to accommodate the influx of illegal migration from Haiti and Cuba with Prime Minister Davis saying his administration is doing the best it can to deal with the matter.
“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.
“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,” Davis said.
He said last year, the authorities deported 3,500 Haitians and so far this year, have intercepted several persons who have been returned to Haiti.
“Right now, I think we have less than 100 in our detention center. So we are returning them home as quickly as we can,” he said.
CMC
