Haiti - FLASH : The Bahamas want to demolish all the shantytowns of the archipelago
After the destructive passage of Hurricane Dorian and the prohibition of the Bahamas Ministry of Housing and the Environment to build, reside or engage in any commercial activity https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-28809-haiti-flash-the-government-recognizes-not-having-the-ressources-to-help-the-haitian-victims-in-the-bahamas.html on the sites of the most important slums of Abaco (Sand Banks , Farm Road, L and H at Treasure Cay, The Mudd, Pigeon Peas and Elbow Cay) where illegally residing the majority of illegal Haitians; The Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Hubert Minnis, announced to Parliament that he had asked the Attorney General to lift a court order of August 2018 prohibiting the Government from demolishing the slums built without authorization declaring "It is the responsibility of the Government to guarantee the security of its population. It is therefore imperative to eliminate all slums in our territory. They break our laws, are not safe and are bad for you."
Recall that the 2018 ordinance was issued by Supreme Court Judge Cheryl Grant-Thompson after the Government gave slum dwellers on New Providence Island until August 10, 2018 to vacate the premises before demolition. It should be noted that the Bahamas Supreme Court declined to rule and postponed this case on several occasions.
Note that this is the second time the Prime Minister has addressed the legislature to tackle the problem of slum clearance in the Bahamas. On 2 October, Minnis announced that the Attorney General, Carl Bethel, had been instructed to take legal measures to acquire private land where cottages were built without authorization.
For their part, human rights activists in the Bahamas denounce the government's intention, saying the government can not use Hurricane Dorian as a pretext to suppress the rights of people to migrants who once inhabited these houses not regulated.
