The Tribune

By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

LABOUR and Immigration Minister Keith Bell said he thinks the government will move to demolish shanty towns sometime this year.

The minister was asked during a recent interview about a timeline for when the government will move to raze the illegal structures now that a Supreme Court injunction barring such action has been lifted.

This comes as tensions over the issue continue to mount, with political hopeful Lincoln Bain and several of his supporters being stopped by police a little over a week ago as they tried to demolish homes in a shanty town off Bacardi Road.

 Asked about the issue, Mr Bell responded: “The main thing here is that this is a country, and I’ve repeated this before, this is a country of law and order. Everything has to be done in decency and respect and in those shanty towns, we have three categories of persons.

 “While we have the undocumented migrants we also have persons who have legal status here in the country and we have Bahamians living in those shanty towns. So the idea is that when we do go and move to demolish, we identify those Bahamians, and we ensure that they have some place to go, or we provide Social Services to them.

 “And that is what I think we are seeking to achieve, that when we do go we have all our ducks lined up and there is no push back. And we ensure that once we go in there and we clear the shanty towns, that we ensure that there is no rebuilding of the shanty towns. So that is what I think we want to make sure we get it right — we only have one bite at the apple. “

 Asked if he thinks demolition will happen this year, he answered: “Absolutely.”

 Asked for a more specific timeline, he stated: “I can’t say when but I would think it’s imminent.”

 The Davis administration has reconvened a shanty town task force following the lifting of a Supreme Court injunction that had previously banned government from demolishing shanty town homes.

 Mr Bell was also among the CARICOM delegation that left for Haiti last week to meet with politicians and other officials there to discuss security issues facing the country.

 He said the reality is that the situation in Haiti is deteriorating continuously.

 “We do know of many incidents which warrant international intervention but, again, the main concern or the main thrust and the main concern obviously has to come from the Haitian people in terms of a solution,” he told this newspaper.

 “So, while they want help or they’re seeking our help the thrust has to come from them in terms of how that help would impact them.”