The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell will offer a defence of this country’s human rights record and immigration policies during a special, high-level meeting of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, tomorrow.

It will be the minister’s first time addressing the body, a move he said the government believes is important to help set the record straight on its recent actions in terms of immigration.

The event, which starts today and runs to March 27, is the 28th session of the UN’s Human Rights Council.

“It’s the first time (I will speak at the session) but not the government,” Mr Mitchell said yesterday, from Germany. “We have an ambassador accredited to the council, Rhoda Jackson. This is a special high-level meeting and because I am in the proximate area at a foreign minister’s meeting with the German government, it was felt that given the importance of our migration reforms, I ought make a statement at this high-level conference.”

Mr Mitchell said he will address a broad range of issues relating to the welfare of Bahamians.

“I shall make the case for our upholding the universal human rights (and) I will defend our record on migration and tolerance and denounce those who say otherwise,” he said.

In the past few months, the Christie administration has faced fierce criticism over its immigration policy, which was implemented in November, as an attempt to clamp down on illegal immigration in the country.

The fiercest criticism has come from the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association, which has insisted that actions of the government relating to immigration have been illegal and unfairly target Haitians or those of Haitian descent.

Mr Mitchell has repeatedly dismissed the association, and has rebuffed its attempts to meet with him and discuss the matters publicly.

Recently, the Organisation of American States’ (OAS) human rights commission gave the government two weeks to adopt precautionary measures in view of the alleged conditions at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.

The measures call for immediate action to ensure the life and physical integrity of people held in immigration detention, who are believed to be at risk due to alleged inhumane conditions, including overcrowding and the lack of appropriate medical attention.

An OAS report sent to the government on February 13 noted that conditions were exacerbated by extreme overcrowding, pointing to allegations that detainees are “given insufficient food with poor nutritional value, are deprived of access to clean drinking water, are not provided with clean clothes, are consistently denied adequate medical care and are held in dormitory buildings that are infested with mosquitoes, cockroaches, mice and rats.”

The government has said the allegations in the report are “inaccurate.”

Mr Mitchell previously delivered a multi-layered defence of the new immigration policy during an address before the OAS in December.

The GBHRA is expected to appear before the OAS to give a rebuttal to Mr Mitchell and the government’s immigration restrictions on March 20 in Washington, DC.

The GBHRA has promised to expose alleged human rights abuses, procedural violations and unlawful detention exercises that the group believes have characterised the government’s new immigration enforcement policy.