The Grand Bahama Human Rights Association is alarmed and appalled at the cherry-picked, sanitized, misleading description of the government’s new immigration policy offered to the Organization of American States (OAS) by Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell.

This heavily censored version of reality cannot be allowed to stand – it is an affront to all those who have seen their fundamental rights crushed under the heel of this illegal, immoral and unconstitutional new policy, as well as to the country as a whole, which is supposed to be grounded in an abiding respect for Christian principles and the rule of law.

The GBHRA has no choice but to travel to Washington and lay before the heads of the OAS the full facts of the matter and set the record straight.

The points we will clarify in direct response to Minister Mitchell’s statement include:

• That his description of the new policy as “two innocuous administrative measures”, is a blatantly misleading characterization of the recent efforts to indiscriminately round up, detain and deport suspected illegal immigrants in a manner which violates their fundamental rights and the Bahamas Constitution which guarantees them.

• That the injunction that all non-nationals who live in The Bahamas must have to get and hold the passport of their nationality, amounts to an arbitrary and insidious system of circumventing another right specifically guaranteed by the constitution: the right of the children of foreigners born in The Bahamas to apply for Bahamian citizenship when they turn 18. Mitchell should know full well that dozens of children to whom this right applies have been rounded up and removed from the country, most likely never to return, before they have even had a chance to apply. Many likewise may have been in the process of applying, and – worst of all – some have been removed from the country who did all that was legally required of them, applied for citizenship at the prescribed time, then sat waiting for years in limbo as a result of government ineptitude. Spiriting people away in a manner that prevents them from accessing a constitutionally-guaranteed process is the definition of acting in bad faith.

• Mitchell is correct to point out that there must be reasonable suspicion of a law being broken before an individual can be detained by the authorities. He was completely incorrect however, to suggest that this is what is taking place in The Bahamas. The GBHRA has heard dozens of testimonials in the last few weeks from Haitians and Haitian-Bahamians about indiscriminate raids on entire communities, and check-points set up at busy intersections. These practices amount to casting a net over large groups of people, then sorting the ‘wheat from the chaff’ afterwards, behavior which is the complete opposite of the standard of reasonable suspicion, and which violates the rights of everyone questioned or detained in this manner. In addition, we remind the minster that other aspects of constitutionally-mandated due process are being ignored, including the right to legal counsel, the right to apply for bail, the right to trial and the presumption of innocence. Again, the GBHRA invites all members of the public who have been inconvenienced in any way to join a class action lawsuit against the government which we are currently preparing.

• It is good that the minister invited the International Human Rights Commission and the OAS to visit the Detention Center; no doubt this will lead to considerable improvements in conditions there in the short term. Indeed, unconfirmed reports suggest work may have begun within hours of Mitchell’s speech. At the same time, the GBHRA demands an explanation of why its own repeated requests for a tour of the facility, along with similar calls from other human rights activists and members of the local press, have been either been completely ignored or rejected outright. If there has been nothing to hide all along, why the years upon years of secrecy?

• It was disingenuous of Mitchell to conflate the GBHRA’s characterizations of the new policy and conditions at the centre as equivalent to“mass murder” and “gas chambers”. It was never claimed that the government of The Bahamas was executing detainees. What was asserted however, what that the policy amounts to ethnic cleansing and that the center boasts conditions reminiscent of a concentration camp. Regardless of the connotations with which Mitchell would like to load these words, mischaracterizing the association’s message, in point of fact, “ethnic cleansing” is defined simply as “the systematic forced removal of ethnic or religious groups from a given territory with the intent of making it ethnically or religiously homogeneous”. Genocide is but one tool used historically to achieve this aim. Deportation and forcible displacement are by far the more commonly used methods. The definition of concentration camp, meanwhile, is: “a type of prison where large numbers of people who are not soldiers are kept during a war and are usually forced to live in very bad conditions”. Based on these standard definitions, the association stands by its comments.

• Mitchell’s failure to thoroughly discuss during his speech, the claims of beatings and abuse meted out by Immigration or Defense Force officers over the last several weeks can most generously be characterized as an egregious and irresponsible oversight. The details of these cases have been widely covered in the local press, and as the minister has admitted in another forum, the department is in possession of at least one formal complaint. It is also important to note here that despite Mitchell’s earlier suggestions to the contrary, many of those who have complained of mistreatment are not illegal immigrants at all, but rather citizens of this country who hold Bahamian passports – a fact which itself disproves the claim that detentions are not indiscriminate.

The GBHRA cautions the government that is only a matter of time before the full truth of this matter is revealed. If Mitchell and his colleagues remain on their current course, the country will be exposed to shame and embarrassment before the entire world.

The GBHRA urges the Christie administration to acknowledge the illegality of its current immigration enforcement policy, and move swiftly to replace it with a system that is rational, humane, and in accordance with the rule of law. As Minister Mitchell himself told the OAS, in a tourism-based economy such as ours, reputation is everything.