The Tribune

HUMAN rights campaigners have warned that “the world is watching” as the government prepares to start demolition work on shanty homes.

Minister of Works and Family Island Affairs Clay Sweeting told The Tribune this week that 162 structures in the Kool Acres and All Saints Way shanty towns will be demolished starting from Monday, and that only Bahamians will get housing assistance.

Human Rights Bahamas on Thursday warned that the government “risks causing a humanitarian crisis if they do not have appropriate provisions in place to shelter and support the hundreds of people, including many children, who will be made homeless through its shanty town eviction policy”.

In a statement, Human Rights Bahamas said: “Human Right Bahamas has noted the government’s insistence that it is carrying out the evictions according to the law. We and our international partners in the human rights community will be watching carefully to ensure this is the case.

“Regardless of the above, the fact remains that this exercise will still lead to hundreds – and, if the policy is extended to other communities, many thousands – of people ejected into the street without the most basic necessities to support human life. Many of them are without work, vulnerable and already dangerously below the poverty line.”

The Tribune previously spoke to residents in the communities who were concerned about where they could go. One resident said he expected to be living in his car, while others talked of the shortage of rental units or the high cost of rent.

Human Rights Bahamas said: “Carrying out this exercise in the absence of a comprehensive support plan would thus constitute a violation of international human rights regulations and multilateral treaties to which The Bahamas is signatory.

“According to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Housing: ‘Forced evictions constitute gross violations of a range of internationally recognized human rights, including the human rights to adequate housing, food, water, health, education, work, security of the person, freedom from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment, and freedom of movement. Forced evictions are often linked to the absence of legally secure tenure, which constitutes an essential element of the right to adequate housing. Forced evictions share many consequences similar to those resulting from arbitrary displacement, including population transfer, mass expulsions, mass exodus, ethnic cleansing and other practices involving the coerced and involuntary displacement of people from their lands and communities’.”

Human Rights Bahamas called on the government to detail its plan to feed, house and care for “those it intends to displace next week”.

The group added: “We also call on any institutions, such as churches or social clubs, which are connected to the communities being targeted, to do what they can to open their doors and assist those who will be affected, in the event the government fails to live up to its duty to uphold international human rights norms, widely recognised humane practices, and a basic standard of decency and humanity.

“As always, we remind the State and its agents – the world is watching.”