The Tribune

By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

JETTA Baptiste, president of the Haitian Bahamian Society of the Bahamas, has criticised Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell for his “incompetence” in dealing with the country’s illegal immigration problem and attempting to blame her and others for ruining the good name of The Bahamas.

Ms Baptiste believes that Mr Mitchell’s “harsh” immigration policy, which was implemented on November 1, fails to effectively address the ongoing illegal immigration situation.

“You went ahead and did the same old thing that has proven time and again to be a total failure and ineffective way of ridding the Bahamas of illegal immigrants,” she said of Mr Mitchell in a statement yesterday. “Have you not learned anything from your predecessors?

“You have not implemented any new, innovative or creative strategies for dealing with the immigration situation and you want change. What kind of change do you expect to get?”

Lawyer Fred Smith, QC, Ms Baptiste, Louby Georges, Ansen Aley and Florida House of Representative Daphne Campbell have all spoken out against the new policy and the mass raids on Haitians in The Bahamas.  Mr Mitchell has accused all of them in the House of Assembly of “sullying the good name of the Bahamas”.

However, Ms Baptiste claims that Mr Mitchell has brought the international spotlight on his own “incompetence”. She claims that Mr Mitchell has “swept aside the NGO report “ (by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights) by saying he has his own set of recommendations by a committee headed by a prominent judge.

Ms Baptiste added that investigations of women denied medical care at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre while in labour has also not been made public as Mr Mitchell had promised. She said he has also made light of conditions (at the Detention Centre) that are in violation of the acceptable standards of governments in the civilised world.

She accused the minister of wasting the people’s financial resources by conducting faux raids, arresting almost 400 and ending up with only 77 so-called illegals, many of whom had work permits pending.

“The law states after having legal status for ten consecutive years you are entitled to citizenship or permanent residence, if you want it. Why did this government refuse to renew people’s work permits that were qualified under these provisions? Why did your immigration officers arrest children on November 1, 2014? Why are you putting in place legislation which directly impact children so that they won’t be able to attend school in the upcoming school year?”

Ms Baptiste has commended the Minister for some of the positive changes he has made by no longer housing children and women at the Detention Centre.

Mr Mitchell, she claims, has tried to convince people that the American government and the Bahamian people support what he is doing. 

She said Haitians continue to slip into the country, referring to the three large boatloads that recently landed in the Bahamas: in Nassau, in Abaco and in Eleuthera.

“If you are doing such a great job, how could these old, slow, rickety sloops sail all the way from Haiti to Abaco, Eleuthera and Nassau? You have failed the Bahamian people miserably and for this you should be fired, effective immediately,” she said.