“Lawyers support Smith On Detention Centre Access” – The Tribune 7. Dec 2017

Excerpt from this article; “TOP lawyers yesterday came to attorney Fred Smith’s defense after he was thrown out of the Detention Centre on Monday and denied access to his client.

Minister of State of Legal Affairs Elsworth Johnson told reporters out the House of Assembly yesterday while he does not know the details surrounding Mr. Smith’s incident, it is unconstitutional for a lawyer to be prevented from seeing a client.

‘Having access to an attorney that is enshrined in our Constitution, the former Bar Association president said.

‘It’s is the basis for the rule and so essential to it that the Constitution accepts that the court is responsible  for the protection of fundamental rights for the interpretation for all laws and the reason the Constitution sets up that right for someone to have access to a lawyers is that through that, persons are able to intelligently bring their complaints of the breach of nay rights of the lawyer of their choosing through the courts or advocate for the protection of those rights.’ He said.

‘That is the basis upon which our democracy is built.  So, the right to have a lawyer is fundamental and only in extreme reasons should that be curtailed.”

Well as this situation progressed it would seem that there was an ‘extreme reason’ as to why this fundamental right was curtailed in the situation of detainee Jean Rony Jean-Charles.

“Missing’ Detainee was Flown to Haiti” – The Tribune 6. Dec. 2017

Except from this article; “A 35-year old man detained by Immigration and who has not contacted his family for nearly three weeks has been flown to Haiti, Director of Immigration William Pratt said yesterday.

In an interview with The Tribune, Mr. Pratt said Jean Rony Jean-Charles was sent to Port au Prince, Haiti on November 24 after not being able to prove he was in the country legally.

However, representatives from the Haitian Embassy told The Tribune they have no record of Mr. Jean-Charles being repatriated.

When contacted Kerl Chatelier, First Secretary of the Haitian Embassy, said when the Immigration Department is sending suspected illegal immigrants back to Haiti his embassy is notified of the individuals involved.

‘In the case of Jean Rony-Charles we don’t know anything about him.  His name is not on the list’ said Mr. Chatelier.

When questioned about the discrepancy, Mr. Pratt said he was ‘unsure’ and can only say he was ‘told the man was repatriated.’

On Tuesday, the family of Mr. Jean-Charles said they were unsure whether he was ‘dead or alive’ or was ‘illegally deported’ after allegedly not being allowed to speak to him or visit him in nearly three weeks.”

The issue here is Mr. Jean-Charles a legal migrant or not?

We have been made aware that just being born here does not make you legal, if you are born to two illegal migrants, you are considered to be a citizen of your parents or father origin until you reach age 18 and go through the process of becoming Bahaman citizens; did Mr. Jean-Charles go through this process?  Because all of the ‘noise’ that his lawyer is making on his behalf has not made this particular issue clear and this is central to the entire case of him being ‘illegally’ deported.

I will say that it is wrong for the department of Immigration to not know the whereabouts of a detainee and instead of the theatrics that his lawyer had been putting on, he should have taken early legal action against the Immigration Department to avoid all of the ensuring drama, if this was something that he saw in the best interest of his client but now we have come to a point where it seems that law and order and commonsense has stepped in, since this lawyer did  not seem too interested  in finding out exactly what happened to his client and suggesting how this problem can be avoided in the future.

“Immigration Set Deadline On Detainee” – The Tribune 7 Dec. 2017

Excerpt from this article; “THE government must produce detainee Jean Rony Jean-Charles and bring evidence to justify his detention on December 19 or be held in contempt of court, according to a ruling in the Supreme Court yesterday.

Officials have said Mr. Jean-Charles was repatriated to Haiti last month after spending some time in the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.

Applications for habeas corpus writs were filed in the Supreme Court against the attorney general, minister of immigration, director of immigration, and the superintendent of the Carmichael Road Detention Center on November 29.

Yesterday, Justice George Hilton gave permission for the writs to be issued and set a return date for December 19,”

Now his lawyer may say that this has been brought about by this actions but at the end of it all the question is was it worth it and why did he not do this in the first place?

This case has brought to the surface tensions that have existed between Bahamians and Haitians for some time and there seems to be some notion among the Haitian community that the December 31^st deadline is something against them [Haitians] when it is actually against all illegal migrants be they Cuban, Jamaican, Dominican, American. Philippians or Haitian.   The Bahamas just happens to have a predominately larger percentage of Haitians as illegal migrants, the younger of which, to some extent, has become very disrespectful to the country where their parents came to afford them a better life.

So now we are, legally, where we should have been a month or so ago, as Jean Rony Jean-Charles has been detained since September but it does speak to a immigration system that is seriously outdated and in desperate need of being brought up to date.

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