The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

FOREIGN Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell yesterday defended his ministry’s decision to bar an international human rights agency from the Carmichael Road Detention Centre, insisting that the move was due in large part to the organisation’s connection to local groups alleged to be orchestrating plans to “destabilise” the government.

In remarks made to further clarify his ministry’s position, Mr Mitchell, speaking on the sidelines of the Dubai Expo 2020 student presentation at the University of The Bahamas on Monday, said his office acted within its rights as the group posed a threat to democratic fibre of The Bahamas.

The Fox Hill MP didn’t mince words on the issue yesterday as he firmly stated: “They are not going to be allowed into the Detention Centre so long as they are tied to that kind of situation.”

In a January 19 article published on the Huffington Post’s website, Kerry Kennedy, who is the daughter of the late US Attorney General Robert F Kennedy, painted the Detention Centre as a “nightmare” for immigrants detained there.

Ms Kennedy also wrote an “open letter” to Mr Mitchell that was recently published on a Caribbean affairs website, inviting the government to address, with Robert F Kenney Human Rights, a number of allegations concerning abuses and mistreatment of migrants at the Detention Centre.

The letter detailed a denial of entry to the facility during a recent trip to the capital after a week’s delay of a response from the Department of Immigration to the organisation’s request to be allowed to see the premises.

The letter added that “facts” established at the centre suggested that it was in a serious and urgent situation that placed “lives and physical integrity at risk”.

In response, Mitchell told reporters Monday: “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement as I recall it, in response to a open letter written by Kerry Kennedy who is connected to some foundation or other in the United States; who has been trying to get into the Detention Centre.

“The problem with the foundation is, all the evidence suggests that they are connected to one of these permanent residents in The Bahamas who is fighting for, or has a fight with his neighbour,” he said, referring to Lyford Cay billionaire Louis Bacon.

“But the allegations (were made) in Parliament that this individual has been funding millions of dollars to try and destabilise the government.

“That therefore begs the question whether this foundation has an independent view of anything that they are judging at the moment and so the ministry’s response was made in light of that.”

Mr Mitchell said his ministry has adopted working regulations on who could get access to the centre with reasonable notice, in official capacities, with the aim of the regulations becoming permanent in the near future.

“One of them is the international Red Cross and the Red Cross of the Bahamas; another is the United Nations Human Rights Commission (UNHRC), another is the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights; any member of Parliament, including the leader of opposition and their designated spokesperson for the opposition and the Department of Social Services,” said Mr Mitchell.

“Until the rules are put in place, and they are still being designed by the Attorney General’s Office, until the rules are put in place that is what we said about those agencies (being able to) access the Detention Centre.

“And of course, if you are representing a citizen who is in the Detention Centre. For example, if you are the government of the United States, one of your citizens are in there, or you are the Haitian government, one of your citizens is in there; you can also access those persons in the centre.”

In response to the ministry’s earlier statement on Ms Kennedy, the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association (GBHRA) called on Prime Minister Perry Christie to “rein in” the “reckless, unbalanced” behaviour of the Fox Hill MP.

“Prime Minister Perry Christie must find the courage to rein in his reckless, unbalanced minister before The Bahamas’ reputation has been downgraded to ‘junk’ status and we become a laughingstock in the international community,” the group said in a statement.

“In his latest unhinged attack on universally respected American human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, Mitchell has again displayed some extremely concerning authoritarian tendencies that have increasingly become his trademark. All Bahamians should be concerned about the future of the country with such an individual anywhere near a position of power.

“In (Mr) Mitchell’s world, any individual or entity that might be critical of the minister or his government has ‘no credibility’ and works according to shady ulterior motives. Meanwhile every opportunity is taken to attack the messenger in an effort to distract from the message itself.”

GBHRA added: “His deranged ranting may play well to certain xenophobic elements within The Bahamas, but to the outside world, Mitchell is making us look like a silly, insecure banana republic run by delusional tin-pot dictators.”