The Tribune

By MORGAN ADDERLEY

Tribune Staff Reporter

madderley@tribunemedia.net

SHANTY town residents expressed joy yesterday at a Supreme Court injunction barring the Minnis administration from moving ahead with its August 10 deadline eviction deadline for unregulated New Providence communities.

Despite the injunction, the government is pushing ahead with surveys of shanty towns in the Family Islands.

Yesterday, Labour Minister Dion Foulkes underscored to reporters the injunction only applies to the shanty towns in New Providence, adding task forces on Family Islands are either being established or already underway.

Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson granted the interlocutory injunction blocking evictions and service disconnections on Saturday, during a telephone conference with Attorney General Carl Bethel and human rights attorney Fred Smith, QC.

For residents of a shanty town off Cowpen Road, the court's decision was welcome news as many claimed they did not have the money to move out of the community.

A man who identified himself only as Fenol, who has lived in that community for 22 years, said he already rented a house and moved his belongings in preparation for the deadline.

However, Fenol was still pleased that the other residents have more time, in light of the eviction deadline being put on hold.

"Yea that's better," he said, speaking in broken English. "If (the government) don't (make it) August 10, I am very happy because…I think some people (still needed time).

"Some people don't have (enough) money to rent house…Plenty people already moved. Because they think (the evictions) will happen for sure, August 10."

Walking through the shanty town, Fenol directed this newspaper to a group of men gathered in the centre of the community. The men, both residents and friends of residents, all expressed their appreciation for the injunction.

A Haitian-Bahamian resident, who wished to be identified as "Horse", referenced the impact the injunction would have on families, especially with the new school year approaching.

"I glad the people postponed all of this, because people gotta buy school clothes and all kinds of other things, man," he told The Tribune. "Some more time, that's a good thing for the people still."

The resident said he has lived in the community his whole life. He added that he had "no intentions" of moving, regardless of the deadline.

"I born here. I ain't got nowhere to go. I was waiting."

When asked if he was waiting to see happened, "Horse" replied: "See what happen? I feel like I wasn't going nowhere. Point, blank, period."

Another man who goes by "Caesar", said he has been spending time in the community for years. He described the injunction as "fair", both from a moral and legal perspective.

"Well I think it's a joy to know they gave them the injunction," Caesar said. "I think everyone is human beings, everyone deserves to have a fair chance and a fair trial to anything.

"That's as simple as even if you do a crime. So it's just right is only right. And it's only fair."

Two women, one who did not give her name and another who identified herself as Tewfja, had their comments translated by Horse from Haitian Creole to English.

The first woman said she has lived in the shanty town with her five children for the past five years. She said she was "happy" the deadline had been put on hold.

When asked if she had been planning to leave the shanty town, Horse translated: "She say no because she couldn't find a house."

Tewfja has been a resident of the shanty town for a decade. The Tribune asked the mother-of-five her thoughts on the injunction.

"She say she happy because she have school clothes to buy," Horse translated.

"Yea, she had plans to move," he added. "(But) she ain't had no money and she couldn't find a spot."

When questioned by reporters yesterday, Mr Foulkes said he was given instructions to continue with shanty town related efforts in the Family Islands.

"I want to indicate that the prime minister has given me firm instructions and our task force firm instructions to proceed with all of the programmes that we have in the Family Islands, namely in Abaco, Eleuthera, and North Andros in particular," Mr Foulkes said.

Mr Foulkes said the Abaco task force has already been established, and its shanty town survey is "almost 90 per cent completed".

"They have to go to Hope Town this coming weekend and we anticipate that they would be finished by early next week. So we should get a good picture in terms of the population of the…five shanty towns in Abaco and in Hope Town."

He added task forces are also being established in Andros and Eleuthera, noting Eleuthera has 11 "relatively small" shanty towns, the largest of which is in Spanish Wells.

"The court injunction is specific to New Providence only. The attorney general will deal with all of the comments dealing with the court action. I will not say anything further with respect to any matters dealing with the shanty towns in New Providence," Mr Foulkes said.

When asked if he was feeling nonetheless "discouraged" by the injunction and it impeding the work of the Shanty Town Action Task Force, which he chairs, Mr Foulkes said the process is a constitutional right.

"We live in a democratic society, and every person who lives in the Bahamas [has] the right to access our legal process.

"It's something that's constitutionally guaranteed and I leave it to the courts to decide."