The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

I must commend The Tribune for its courageous decision in being the voice for Rights Bahamas and Migrant Rights chairperson Mona Agenor, who has alleged that her young family was brutalised by officers from the Department of Immigration.

The alleged incident, I understand, occurred during the law enforcement agency’s joint operation with Southwestern Division police officers; and was dubbed Rising Sun.

Capturing 28 Haitians, Rising Sun, if nothing else, underscores the Minnis administration’s aggressiveness in tackling the illegal immigration crisis gripping The Bahamas.

With her rabid opposition to the Free National Movement’s plan to demolish shanty towns throughout New Providence and Abaco, Agenor has courageously stood up in defence of hundreds of Haitian families, many of whom have no contingency plans in the event they are evicted. With few homeless shelters in New Providence and Abaco, these people would be rendered homeless.

The staunch opposition of Agenor and other Rights Bahamas officials such as Stephanie St Fleur and Fred Smith to the demolition plans, has engendered annoyance among Bahamians.

In a May 2018 Tribune article, St Fleur called the shanty town evictions “ethnic cleansing” -- a characterisation that borders on sensationalism. Be that as it may, Rights Bahamas’ allegations of retaliation towards Agenor for her opposition to the Minnis administration’s shanty town policy is deeply disturbing.

Any appeals to Amnesty International by Rights Bahamas will only bring further embarrassment to The Bahamas, amid repeated allegations of widespread xenophobia and human rights abuses by law enforcement agencies.

While I am disappointed that the Immigration Department has ignored The Tribune’s request for answers, I will hesitantly give our hard working officers the benefit of the doubt with respect to this latest matter.

Having said that, I would like to remind the Bahamian people, the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Immigration Department that any kind of abuse, be it verbal, physical, emotional or psychological, is a violation of biblical law.

Exodus 22:21 says in the NASB, “You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

In light of our penchant for using Exodus motifs in describing Majority Rule, independence and the exploits of Sir Lynden Pindling, the foregoing biblical verse, as well as Exodus 23:9, takes on added significance.

As a full bred Bahamian, I appreciate this nation’s sovereignty; the same way Rights Bahamas and Agenor must appreciate Haiti’s. We must protect our borders. With tens of thousands of illegal Haitian migrants in The Bahamas, we are obviously in crisis mode. The Bahamas simply cannot subsume Haiti’s 11 million people.

Having said that, I implore our hard working officers at the Immigration Department to heed the biblical injunction in Exodus by not engaging in any acts of human rights violations against our Haitian brothers and sisters. To do so would only incur God’s wrath on this nation.

KEVIN EVANS

Freeport,

Grand Bahama

August 1, 2019.