The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Senior Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

HUMAN Rights Bahamas has called on the government to immediately remove male officers from the Department of Immigration’s ‘‘safe house” and to investigate sexual assault allegations against detainees there.

Their demand comes after a Surinamese woman sued the government over claims that a male officer drugged and sexually assaulted her.

In a statement yesterday, Rights Bahamas alleged there was a pattern of predatory behaviour in holding facilities.

“A picture is emerging, not of one or two isolated incidents, but rather an organised, practised and premeditated scheme of drugging and raping detainees, perpetrated by a small group of officers,” the group claimed.

“Information from former detainees also reveals a highly toxic wider culture of drunkenness and predatory behaviour among the male officers generally, who regularly sexually harass and intimidate female detainees, watch them while they are showering, and violate their right to privacy, safety and dignity in countless other ways. Meanwhile, the female officers look the other way,” the group claimed.

“We expect further lawsuits to be filed in due course and have full confidence (in) the Bahamas judiciary to ensure the justice is done in each case.”

The Surinamese woman said her alleged rapist told other officers what he did and she was denied access to her lawyers while immigration officials investigated her claims.

The woman claimed the officer repeatedly filled her a cup containing what he said was a mixture of gin, wine and cranberry juice until she became nauseated, weak and drowsy. He then allegedly started kissing and having sexual intercourse with her.

Rights Bahamas said: “We remind the government that the immigration safe house was created by order of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), precisely because the commission deemed there to be no safe place for women and children in the immigration department’s custody at the time.

“To say this dismal facility is failing to live up to its purpose, may be the understatement of the year. Instead of being held in safety, these women and children have been rendered into the clutches of predators.

“In addition to removing all male officers from active duty at the safe house, they should also explicitly be barred from entry at any other time, and a full review and investigation of the activities and culture among those officers must be launched immediately.

“The reluctance of successive administrations to deal with the rogue agency, which the Bahamas Immigration Department has become, serves as active encouragement for officers to continue to behave as if they are a law unto themselves and treat detainees as if they are worthless, have no rights, and can be physically and sexually abused at will.

“Someone has to have the courage to bring it to an end.”

Last month, the Department of Immigration asserted that there was “no substance” to the rape allegation in question.

In a press statement at the time, the department said an investigation by its Corruption, Complaints and Intelligence Unit, along with the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Sexual Offenses Unit, was concluded in the absence of the woman submitting the complaint.

The statement alleged that the woman denied there was any inappropriate conduct toward her.