NASSAU, BAHAMAS — The government of The Bahamas faces the potential of triggering a humanitarian crisis if it fails to establish adequate provisions for sheltering and supporting the hundreds of individuals, including numerous children, who are at risk of becoming homeless due to its shanty town eviction policy.
Human Rights Bahamas, in a statement, said it 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,” the organization stated.
“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.
According to Human Rights Bahamas, undertaking such an exercise in the absence of a comprehensive support plan would constitute a violation of international human rights regulations and multilateral treaties to which The Bahamas is a signatory.
Rights Bahmas noted that based on 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.”
The organization is calling on the government to disclose its plan to feed, house, and care for those it intends to displace next week.
“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 recognized humane practices, and a basic standard of decency and humanity,” the organization stated.
Residents of the Kool Acres and All Saints communities must now leave those communities as the eviction notice given to them expired earlier this week. The Ministry of Works gave those residents a 28-day period to remove all illegal structures by October 30.
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