Press Conference Statement on Haiti - Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham

Tue, Jan 19th 2010, 12:00 AM

Nassau, Bahamas - The terrible conditions in Haiti following upon the 7.0 earthquake which struck Port au Prince and other nearby towns continue to be revealed daily.

 The Bahamas is coordinating its response to the disaster in Haiti with other Caricom member states and CDEMA, the regional disaster emergency management agency.

 The Government of The Bahamas has arranged with Clearing Banks to receive donations from the general public into a special account for Emergency and Reconstruction Assistance to Haiti.  I want to encourage Bahamians to be generous in their donations to our near neighbour.  Natural disasters impact all of us at one time or the other and it is important that we give when we are able.

 As indicated in my first announcement of the opening of the Haiti Emergency account, funds received will be made available to either the Haitian Government or to other international relief agencies operating in Haiti. 

We will seek to ensure that donated funds reach the agency best able to assist the largest number of Haitian victims of the earthquake.

 In due course, I will advise of the Government’s direct contribution to Haitian emergency assistance and relief. As you will be aware The Bahamas already contributes to the maintenance of law and order in Haiti by its contribution to the UN peacekeeping Forces in Haiti, a cause which Caricom has championed for some time.

 Bahamians will recall that I declined an invitation to join the Prime Ministers of Barbados and Dominica together with the Secretary General of Caricom seeking to enter Haiti on Friday past as I was not convinced that such a visit would serve any purpose and that we would only get in the way of relief efforts.  That visit was, in fact, aborted.

 Now, I am pleased to announce that I have accepted an invitation from the President of the Dominican Republic to attend an emergency meeting in Santo Domingo tomorrow to discuss coordination of medium- and long-term assistance to our stricken Caribbean sister state.

 Also invited to this meeting are President Preval of Haiti, the Prime Ministers of Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Dominica (current Chair of Caricom) and senior representatives of the Spanish Government, and the Ambassadors of the United States, Canada and France resident in Santo Domingo and the Secretary General of Caricom.

 I wish to comment briefly on some criticism that has been attached by my decision to release on a temporary basis those Haitians awaiting repatriation at the Detention Centre.  I believe this was the sensible and compassionate thing to do in the circumstances.

 I accept that any decision by my Government would be subject to criticism from certain quarters.  That is democracy.  But my colleagues and I -- as well as the majority of right-thinking Bahamians -- are deeply disappointed at the torrent of misinformation, prejudice and hard-heartedness that has spewed especially from the airwaves.

 The circumstances are that the Haitian homeland and especially their capital city has been devastated by the worst catastrophe in 200 years, with tens of thousands dead and more dying every day, with people starving, with infrastructure destroyed and with governmental agencies rendered impotent.

 It should be obvious that in these circumstances it is simply impossible to send undocumented Haitian nationals back to their homeland. 

 You will be aware that the sea port at Port-au-Prince is out of commission.  The airport in that city is clogged with as many as 200 flights a day.  The US military have taken control of the airport at the request of the Haitian Government and flights into Port-au-Prince are being restricted to emergency and military flight connected with the ongoing emergency relief and recovery efforts.

 A Bahamian aircraft attempting to take undocumented Haitians into that situation or indeed into the smaller Haitian airport in Cape Haitien would most certainly be turned back and we would earn the scorn and condemnation of the civilized world.  In the words of a New York Times editorial, “Burdening a collapsed country with destitute deportees would be a true crime.”

 The United States and other countries with large numbers of undocumented Haitians have taken a similar policy decision and will also suspend repatriation and grant temporary status to Haitians facing repatriation. 

 They have also, like us, made it clear that no new immigrants from Haiti will be allowed in.  The American and international media have already taken note of our decision.

 No one knows how long it will be before Haiti is restored to some semblance of normalcy and when repatriation flights from the Bahamas and other places will again  be able to land and be processed in Port-au-Prince.  So it makes sense and it is compassionate not to keep them incarcerated indefinitely.

 I wish to advise that accompanying me to Santo Domingo tomorrow will be the Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest; Captain Stephen Russell, Director of NEMA, and Ms. Teresa Butler, Senior Policy Adviser in the Office of the Prime Minister.  My delegation will leave tomorrow morning and return to Nassau in the evening.

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