One day while a member of Rights Bahamas stood before an international body making the case as to why The Bahamas has become the worst place for persons of Haitian descent to reside and work, the next day a member of the very same organization would stand before same said body and make a case as to why they [Haitian migrants] should be allowed to live and work here, even if their status were ‘illegal migrant’.

“Let them work – Rights group calls on govt. to not detain undocumented migrants” – The Nassau Guardian

Excerpt from this article; “Local human rights activist Fred Smith, QC, said the government should not detain undocumented migrants but instead allow them to work.

‘Denetion ought not to apply to immigrants,’ Smith said during a hearing on the treatment of migrants in The Bahamas which took place on Friday at the 172^nd session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Kingston, Jamaica.

‘So the reality is, just as the government for hundred of Cubans years ago bailed them out and allowed they to go into the community on condition that other members of the community would return them, many Haitians migrants or those waiting documentation can live and be constructive and productive members of the society instead of it costing the government hundreds of millions of dollars, as you say, to keep them in an illegal detention center.

‘Let them out and let them work in the community.”

The short answer is, NO!

It is interesting the manner in which Fred Smith QC and others chose to paint The Bahamas at this Commission on Human Rights; “……many Haitians migrants or those waiting for documentation….”; this implies to this commission and others listening that The Bahamas has routinely, systematically and without just cause detained and denied persons who have applications before the immigration department the right to live and work here, even as their ‘papers’ were bring processed; this within itself is a blatant untruth.

What it appears that Fred Smith, QC is requesting is for The Bahamas, as a nation, set aside its immigration laws and abandon its constitution to accommodate those who wish to spit in the face of our sovereignty by violating our immigration laws and constitution.

He then  goes on to reference a time when the ‘”….the government for hundreds of Cubans years ago bailed them out and allowed them to go into the community on condition that other members of the community would return them”, but he never states a specific date of circumstance surrounding this situation making the entire reference extremely disingenuous.  First of all I would like for him to tell us exactly what was years ago and remind him that TODAY; we send all illegal migrants to their country of birth or mothers birth be they Jamaican, American, Nigerian, Cuban, Dominican and yes even Haitians, there is no discrimination as is being suggested here.

Fred Smith QC and his cohorts seem to be attempting to force The Bahamas into giving them what they want but we cannot throw away our laws and constitution to accommodate a few who have not seen fit to adhere to our laws and constitution in the first place. 

So, the short answer is no, we cannot accommodate and condone new citizens who seem to want to achieve the rights to Bahamian citizenship through illegal means and tell the international community that I said that.

END