The Tribune

WHAT is your plan for how to put food on the table tomorrow? Or next week? Or next month?

For many, that’s a situation that is almost taken for granted – although it shouldn’t be, now more than ever.

For families who have been put on furlough, though, or who have lost their jobs due to the pandemic, it’s a real and genuine concern.

In today’s , we report that the government has not yet decided whether to extend its support efforts for those affected by COVID-19. They have previously been extended – originally, they were supposed to end in June, but were continued because the effects of COVID-19, as we all know, had not gone away. Now they are due to conclude in December, even though businesses, including the big resorts, are only tentatively starting their reopening.

People need to be able to plan ahead, to work out what little money they have will pay for. For those looking at the possible end of support at the end of this month, they will be weighing up whether the money they have will go towards a bill, will perhaps allow for a little gift for Christmas for the children, or whether they need to hold on to it to pay for food in January.

The authorities know the budgets available, they know the opening dates for major businesses such as Atlantis and Baha Mar and the number of people affected from each of those places. To think that for those not fortunate enough to be getting back to work this month that support will just come to a sudden stop seems either unlikely or cruel.

So let people know. Let people plan. For every one that gets back to work, that’s one less that needs help – but that still leaves a great number needing that support.

We long for the day when we are back to normal as a nation and no one needs those COVID-19 support payments – but we’re not there yet, just as we weren’t there in June when the deadline was extended previously.

And once we are back in business? Time to fill up that NIB pot again – and be thankful it was there when we needed it.

Will we learn?

It was like that when I got here.

The words could be coming from Immigration Director Clarence Russell, they could be coming from TV character Bart Simpson. Either way, they don’t help much.

Mr Russell didn’t say those exact words, but he did shrug off the case of Douglas Ngumi, who was unlawfully detained for six and a half years, as he noted that the case preceded his tenure.

Notably absent from his comments were any criticism of the officers involved previously or the actions of the department he now leads.

Let’s go for a second absence – any reassurance that no one is presently being detained unlawfully.

Fred Smith, QC, is calling for officials to publish a list of people at the detention centre, how long they have been there, why they were detained and whether they have been taken before a court as required by law.

If the authorities are so confident that no one is being similarly mistreated, that should be a simple thing to produce.

The award for damages given to Mr Ngumi was the biggest of its kind in the history of The Bahamas. From the reaction – or lack thereof – from officials, you wouldn’t think a case of such magnitude had just concluded.

There isn’t just a lack of commitment to change – there’s barely a recognition that something was wrong to begin with. Mr Russell says a number of changes have taken place under his tenure. We sincerely hope those changes would prevent another unlawful detention – but we can’t trust to his word alone, it must be verified.

And if it’s still happening? Hold all those responsible to account. Unlawful should mean the same no matter whose action we are talking about – whether that is a migrant or an officer in uniform.