The Tribune

By LAMECH JOHNSON

Tribune Staff Reporter

ljohnson@tribunemedia.net

IMMIGRATION Minister Fred Mitchell was tight-lipped yesterday on recommendations made by a local panel about the conditions at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.

Mr Mitchell issued a brief statement to questions posed by The Tribune in view of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ (IACHR) decision to issue precautionary measures over alleged conditions at the detention centre. It gave the government two weeks in which to adopt them.

On Friday, in the government’s response to the IACHR’s report – which it labelled “overstated and inaccurate” – it was revealed that a report commissioned by a panel headed by a former Justice of The Bahamas Court of Appeal about the conditions at the Detention Centre has been completed, and the government is addressing recommendations within the Immigration Department’s resources.

When asked about the recommendations put forward by the panel and whether there was a need to implement the IACHR’s precautionary measures if a local panel had already made recommendations, Mr Mitchell said: “There is no need for us to go beyond the statement already issued. It gives a complete answer. Improvements are ongoing at the facility. Their report is not helpful,” he added.

The IACHR, the principal autonomous agency of the Organisation of American States, issued its mandate on February 13 after analysing “factual and legal” arguments submitted in applications from three international human rights groups. The IACHR report indicated that the government had not responded to its request for information sent on January 15 to date.

The IACHR set out seven measures for immediate action to “ensure the life and physical integrity of persons held in immigration detention” who are believed to be at risk due to alleged inhumane conditions of their detention.

They are to “provide hygienic conditions and adequate medical treatment to the persons in the facility, according to their respective medical conditions; adopt the necessary measures to address the special situation of unaccompanied children, according to international standards; implement measures to ensure that legal assistance is available to all of the beneficiaries, including relevant information concerning their detention and applicable legal process; take immediate action to substantially reduce overcrowding within the CRDC”.

The IAHCR received a request for the precautionary measures from the Caribbean Institute for Human Rights, the International Human Rights Clinic of the Inter-American University of Puerto Rico and the Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights on December 30.

The allegations were based on interviews with seven women and eight men detained at the Carmichael Road facility in November.

Among the concerns raised, it was alleged that no special considerations are given for women and children detained at the Detention Centre. However, the government last year established a separate facility to house illegal migrant families with children.

The report also referred to similar concerns and recommendations on conditions at the Detention Centre from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 2012 and a UN Special Rapporteur in 2013.

The government, in its statement on Friday, confirmed its receipt of the IACHR report and indicated that the document was under review. A diplomatic note on the government’s considered response to allegations and recommendations will be dispatched shortly, according to the statement.

“The assertions in the decision also appear to be related to facts which do not exist now and some of them did not exist at the time the allegations were made. In particular, we think, is the false narrative about the treatment of certain children,” the statement said.

“The government again states that it is committed to maintaining the highest standards in any of its detention facilities in The Bahamas and works continuously at achieving those standards within the level of resources that are available,” it added.