The Tribune

By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

WORKS Minister Alfred Sears said Cabinet has reconvened a shanty town task force and the Bahamian public will soon be given a roadmap which the government will use to address the issue of illegal structures.

His comments came during the House of Assembly’s debate on a call from the official opposition for the establishment of a select committee in Parliament to investigate the illegal immigration issue.

“The issue of irregular, unpermitted structures in The Bahamas, now that the court has dismissed the action (injunction), the ruling of the judge is being studied. The Cabinet has reconvened the shanty town taskforce and we see the group has met, I’ve met with the group. They’ve started their work. Their surveillance and surveys are being done throughout the country,” Mr Sears said.

“In a very short period of time, we will be meeting and outlining to the Bahamian public a roadmap to address the irregular unpermitted structures, not only in shanty towns, but also downtown Nassau. Buildings which are also not historically protected as historic buildings will also be served with notices as some of them are being served as I speak. So this will not just be against any particular socio-economic group. We will have a very comprehensive plan,” Mr Sears said.

Earlier in the debate, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe expressed his opposition to the Free National Movement’s call for the select committee on illegal immigration. He called it a waste of time, manpower and resources, especially in the face of a new operation aimed at better tackling shanty towns.

The call for the establishment of the select committee on immigration is proposed by official opposition leader Michael Pintard. The debate came after Prime Minister Philip Davis’ pledge to take “decisive” action on shanty towns during a national address Sunday night.

Mr Davis, in his address, introduced “Operation Secure” to aid in tackling the unregulated communities adding that people responsible for aiding the network of shanty towns will be held accountable. He also said people who live in shanty towns will have to find alternative housing; however no timeline has been given for when the government will move to evict residents or demolish the illegal structures.

Yesterday, Mr Munroe said that the select committee will require a lot of time, resources and manpower that law enforcement does not have to spare at this time.

“Time is finite. Resources are finite. That’s the reality. Members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force (RBPF), Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) and (Department of) Immigration do not have unlimited time. We do not have unlimited manpower, we are building back from where they (the official opposition) left us,” Mr Munroe said.

“The other side seems to think we have unlimited time. I have recorded the contribution of the member for Marco City (Mr Pintard), who came in with an undefined scope for the select committee, very broad, I have noted 14 very serious and involved terms of reference. The question fundamentally is this: we talk about urgency and the need for action,” he said.

“The prime minister in his national address set out the national immigration policy. So, I would say Madam Speaker, that we have a choice to sit down in a select committee that has no terms of reference as the time for reporting. One of the terms of reference for everything you do, certainly in this administration, everything that I’ve been set to do, has a time for reporting, a time for action,” Mr Munroe said.

“No proposed time for reporting (was given) for this select committee. I trust that it’ll be remedied before we come to vote. But the choice is between a select committee that on the part of the person proposing it will consume a lot of time and resources of defence force personnel, who could be doing other things, of immigration officials who could be doing other things,” Mr Munroe said.

“So when you do these things, the question is, do we commit to a 14 point in terms of reference, no time for reporting. . .select committee, or do we take up the invitation extended by the prime minister that we put out there exactly what we intend to do. If you want to critique it, you can critique it, if you want to have your say, you can have your say,” he said.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court lifted an injunction which barred the government from demolishing shanty towns. The injunction had been in place since 2018.