NASSAU, BAHAMAS — A Supreme Court judge has granted leave to issue a writ of habeas corpus for several asylum seekers currently being detained at the Carmichael Road Detention Center to be heard on April 7.
During a hearing yesterday, Justice Bernard Turner also issued an injunction prohibiting the defendants from expelling or deporting any of them from The Bahamas until the matter is finalized.
The writ, filed by Callenders & Co on January 20, 2021, claims that the plaintiffs fled their countries due to well-founded fear of persecution by reason of their race and/or ethnicity and/or religion, their Anglophone social and political ties and/or their membership of political parties.
Nine of the asylum seekers are from Ambazonia, Cameroon, and one is from Biafra, Nigeria.
The writ claims that the plaintiffs have each been wrongfully detained, falsely imprisoned and deprived of their personal liberty.
The group arrived in The Bahamas on May 4, 2019 by air, seeking political asylum and refugee status.
The writ claims that since they were first detained in May 2019, there has been more than sufficient time for the government to consider the applications of asylum, determine the outcome and implement whatever further action is required.
During the course of their detention, the plaintiffs claim, they were subjected to physical and/or verbal abuse and assaults by immigration officers at the Detention Center, and assaults by other persons held at the center that were instigated and encouraged by the officers.
The writ claims they have been held in inadequate, oppressive and unsanitary conditions and have been refused adequate medical attention.
The defendants include Minister of Immigration Elsworth Johnson, Director of Immigration Clarence Russell, Minister of Foreign Affairs Darren Henfield, Commissioner of Police Paul Rolle, Royal Bahamas Defence Force Commodore Dr Raymond King, Minister of National Security Marvin Dames and Attorney General Carl Bethel.
The plaintiffs are seeking an order for the immediate restoration to each of the plaintiffs’ goods, papers, passports and money that was wrongfully withheld from them, together with damages for the wrongful detention of property and alternative damages in detinue.
They are also seeking an order for the immediate release of the plaintiffs; damages for false imprisonment; special damages; damages for pain, suffering and injury to feelings; aggravated damages; exemplary damages; damages for assault and battery; interest; further or other relief; and costs on a full indemnity and solicitor and own client basis certified fit for three counsel.
The plaintiffs are also seeking compensatory and vindicatory damages for loss of liberty and breach of Articles 19 (1) and 19 (2) of the Constitution; compensation and vindicatory damages for unlawful arrest and unlawful detention under Article 19(4) of the Constitution; and compensation and vindicatory damages for the degrading and inhumane treatment of two of the plaintiffs by separating them, under Article 17(1) of the Constitution.
