The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

INSISTING that the government intends to move “methodically” when addressing the issue of shanty towns, Press Secretary Clint Watson confirmed yesterday that the process to identify documented residents living in the unregulated communities has already started.

Mr Watson was asked for a timeline on the demolition of shanty towns; however, he could not provide one, telling reporters that the government was taking a methodical approach to dealing with the illegal communities.

“I think the Prime Minister wants it to be explicit and clear. He wants all of you to know that we are moving methodically, that’s important, methodically to ensure that we are not creating another crisis,” he told reporters.

“Efforts, however, had been engaged to identify documented residents in shanty towns — documented residents. Now once you’ve identified those documented residents in shanty towns, we will be able to identify their employers who obviously they have more permits for you.”

Mr Watson said employers will be required to find living accommodations for their workers and said in cases where they refuse to do so, their employees’ work permits will be revoked, and they will subsequently be repatriated.

He added: “For those who are undocumented, they will be processed for repatriation and then to the third category, which are Bahamians who are living in these communities, the government will assist in finding relocation places for those Bahamians that are living there.

“Those are the three categories that you will find the shanty towns and so there is a methodical plan that’s in place that’s now dealing with this to identify that before a demolition process can take place.

“And that’s what’s going on right now as we speak.”

Asked about the timeline, Mr Watson could not say.

“It’s just a matter of what we find when we go in,” he added. “They’re working the process and once that’s completed, they can then move to the next stage.”

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

However, Prime Minister Phillip “Brave” Davis suggested last month at a CARICOM press conference that the government will not immediately move to demolish shanty towns, saying it makes no sense “responding to a crisis to create another crisis”.

Days later, Mr Davis gave a national address where he pledged to take decisive action against shanty towns and insisted that demolition in these unregulated communities will begin once “preliminary” steps are completed.

For his part, Immigration Minister Keith Bell recently said he thinks the government will move to demolish shanty towns sometime this year, though he also could not say when.

“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,” Mr Bell told The Tribune last week.

“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 pushback.”