The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Deputy Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

An impending class action suit by attorney Fred Smith, QC, to block shanty town evictions could face serious challenges, Attorney General Carl Bethel said yesterday, as he suggested the government was more concerned about curing the country of these substandard living conditions.

Earlier this month, Mr Smith - Rights Bahamas' (RB) legal director - said there were around 50 families who had come together to launch legal action in a bid to block the evictions. Since then, The Tribune has been told this number has grown.

However, considering the country's laws concerning class action suits, Mr Bethel said it will not be easy for RB to reach a favourable conclusion.

This comes after Haitian Embassy First Assistant Secretary Karl Henri Chatelier, in an interview with ZNS Morning Edition, suggested shanty town residents could either renovate to bring their residences up to building code requirements or lease the land as alternatives to eviction.

Mr Chatelier told ZNS he has been working with local clergy and the Haitian community to help develop alternatives to residents being evicted from shanty towns, while bettering the conditions of those areas. He also said the government's August 10 eviction deadline did not give residents enough time.

"The courts are there and if anybody has a right to take an issue to court they are welcome to do so," Mr Bethel said outside Cabinet yesterday.

"When I last weighed in on this matter there was the suggestion that there was some possibility that there was some class action law suit and I just made the point that our law on class action suits is very strenuous and it's very detailed. You have to have exactly the same interests in everybody."

He continued: "Now someone who claims that they have been squatting on someone else's land for a period of time, if they meet the criteria and of course are able to go to court and have whatever right to continued occupancy that they wish to assert, defended or upheld by the court.

"But that won't cure the issue of not having built in accordance with code. That won't cure the issue of having an unsafe structure. That in and of itself won't cure the issue of the overall atmosphere, the overall conditions in shanty towns and that would be something that would be peculiar to the individual not to the shanty town.

"We're not going to try and adjudicate individual people's rights, that's their right to do for themselves. Our job is to clean up the environment to ensure that wherever there is building, just like with every other person in this country, is building according to code with appropriate permissions from appropriate technical officers in the Ministry of Public Works and in conformity with the building code, that conditions in every community are to the best of our able ability to ensure it is sanitary and that proper standards are maintained. That's what we are doing."

The August 10 deadline is just over two weeks away and in a shanty town off Carmichael Road, many residents expressed concerns about this timeline.

The Tribune canvassed the area on Monday.

A woman who gave her name as Rose, who lives with her mother, three children, and a disabled brother, said the deadline is too short.

"They came here and told us… after 28 days we have to move," she said. "That is too short. A lot of people around here, they have like more than two or three kids, and some of them they don't work and people don't want people with children in (their) apartment.

"I feel as if 28 days is too short."

When asked how long she would recommend the deadline be extended for, Rose suggested three months.

I could understand if they gave the people them three months… Those who ain't working, they could find (something) to do, save up money.

"Because when you look at renting an apartment, you have to pay first, last and security. "And that's like over $1,000, like $1,500 dollars. You should at least give the people an opportunity to try find that money, and in 28 days it's too quick to find that money."

Rose also expressed concerns about the levels of crime in the communities where the government is suggesting shanty town residents relocate.