The Tribune

LOCAL advocacy group Human Rights Bahamas said it is “appalled” by reports from Abaco that families made homeless by Hurricane Dorian are being “forced back into the street” as the government demolishes domes that were erected as temporary shelters after the monster storm.

In a statement issued yesterday, HRB said it was told dome residents “were not given proper notice of a demolition date”, but instead were “repeatedly ordered to leave the only homes currently available to them”.

The group also claimed: “Then one night, the power was cut and the bulldozers rolled in the next morning.”

The demolition process of domes in Abaco officially began last Thursday, more than two years after some 34 domes were built to assist residents with temporary homes. Disaster Reconstruction Authority Executive Chairman Alex Storr previously noted that dome dwellers were to receive a monetary assistance fund of $4,000 to assist with their relocation to a permanent home.

However, HRB said Abaco has a housing shortage that will be exacerbated by the dome demolition.

“Scarcity drives up prices; even for those who can find a vacancy, the $4,000 per household being offered by the government will barely cover the cost of first and last month’s rent, along with the security deposit,” HRB said. “These people – many of them women and children and all of them still suffering from the trauma of Dorian – will have nowhere to go.”

The group noted that the government signed onto the Multi-Country Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (MSDCF) in February, two of the cornerstones of which are eradicating poverty and hunger.

“Under the circumstances, it is hard to see what is happening in Abaco as anything other than a heartless, insensitive betrayal of this international commitment,” HRB said.

The group highlighted the fact that human rights defenders took legal action a few years ago to stop a previous government from “arbitrarily demolishing homes” in shanty towns largely populated by families of Haitian ethnicity.

“Now, this government is destroying structures that were sheltering Bahamian disaster survivors. We must be very careful that the forcible movement of people does not become a trend in the political discourse of this country, as it has in so many dictatorships and intolerant regimes where individual rights and the rule of law are not respected.

“The victims of Dorian are being victimised all over again. They have nowhere to go. We call upon the government to reverse course, cease demolishing these structures and make provision for those who have already been made homeless by this reckless policy,” HRB said.