The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

It would appear by their recent bumbling statement that the United Nations is still grappling with putting a definition to our so-called Haitian problem.

Is ours a refugee problem, a migrant workers problem, a stateless people problem, an illegal immigration problem or a squatter’s problem? Perhaps there is a tinge of all the above.

But the UN obviously was impetuous in weighing in on the situation here. Perhaps their press office should have consulted with legal and public affairs before hitting “send” on their last press release.

When hurricane Dorian hit in 2019, UN Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez was invited to come see what the future of climate change looks like for our planet.

He was Prime Minister of Portugal for seven years then UN High Commissioner for Refugees for 10 years after that.

As his helicopter circled Abaco, he looked down at scenes that ranged from mere damage to devastation.

As they hovered over the shantytown that was once known as the Mud, his minders surely would have given him a brief on who lived and died there and why.

Dorian was an epiphany for Prime Minister Minnis and many Bahamians. Shock quickly turned to anger as we questioned why successive governments allowed the squalor to exist. No human being deserves to live in a hovel.

Especially not in a country that has the highest GDP per capita in all Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).

The problem that vexes us all is that we must shoulder some the burden of the poorest nation in LAC. Haiti’s problems are intractable and after numerous military and economic interventions, even the United States seems to have washed its hands of Haiti’s problems.

When the Secretary General reads his daily brief on the 15 active peacekeeping missions in the world today, where UN soldiers are on the ground, only one is in our hemisphere, the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH), under the command of the Brazilian army.

There are 2,400 active-duty military personnel and 2,500 international policemen on the ground in Haiti right now.

But the UN overlooked that issue when they admonished us for demolishing the shantytowns to ensure we don’t suffer the human misery (not to mention international embarrassment) of another hurricane destroying another shantytown.

One thing the UN stresses in their treaties is that migrants/refugees/illegal immigrants be treated no worse than the nationals of the country. The flip side to this is that they should not be given special treatment not available to citizens and legal immigrants.

No Bahamian can build a squatter’s camp without risking hearing the rumble of bulldozers.

That the Haitians existed on the outskirts of the law and logic for so long is a cause for shame on all politicians.

The government is right to push back on the UN for their hasty decision that was perhaps made ex-parte after a single pleading by squatter’s rights shaman Fred Smith who appears to be at war with any word, coma or hyphen in the Constitution that doesn’t meet his liking.

In his eyes the government – any government – is damned for what they do and damned for what they don’t do.

But we must not give in to pressure or cave on doing what’s right and what has already passed legal muster.

Those people displaced by the demolition of shantytowns who may have a claim to be here or those for whom a compassionate case to remain here can be made, should indeed not be left homeless. The government, the churches, family members and Samaritans should step in to assist them.

What the United Nations should have said instead was that they would pay for those here illegally to be returned to Haiti and perhaps given priority standing to apply from there for lawful re-admission to the Bahamas in a labour visa scheme.

Of course, Haiti has played games with us for decades.

They encourage their people to leave, and they make us jump through hoops to send their citizens back.

Until we realize that Haiti’s largest foreign exchange earner is remittances from migrants/refugees/illegal immigrants abroad, and we come to understand that one of the most powerful Ministries in Haiti is the Ministry of Haitians Living Abroad, we will never come to understand that there are no simple answers to our Haitian problem.

If Haiti’s economic policy is to grow remittances, then it follows that its domestic policy is to tacitly approve of any Haitian who wants to leave.

THE GRADUATE

Nassau,

May 12, 2021.