STATEMENT BY SENATOR FRED MITCHELL

PLP HEADQUARTERS FREEPORT, GRAND BAHAMA

11 JULY 2000

RESPONDING TO ALLEGATIONS MADE BY FRED SMITH

GRAND BAHAMA HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION

I have come to Freeport and Grand Bahama this morning to deal with an issue which I believe has gravely affected my standing in this community. I lay it square at the feet of Fred Smith who without checking with me and without learning the facts went shooting off his mouth, and in the process threatens to undo years of patient work for and on behalf of human rights throughout The Bahamas.

I was surprised indeed to hear from him. I thought that he was no longer interested in human rights as an issue and instead had fully immersed himself in his professional interests most notably representing the Grand Bahama Port Authority here in Freeport. Many times his representation of the Port seemed to have put him at loggerheads with the poor and dispossessed in this community so I thought that this was the reason he had withdrawn from public life.

I do not expect an apology from him. He does not have the grace to deliver one, but it is incumbent upon me to say what I said in the Senate on Tuesday 27 June and set the record straight. I have brought a Creole translator and will directly address the Haitian community at this press conference in a few minutes.

I did not say, nor do I believe that Haitians as a class are causing crime in The Bahamas. I did not say nor do I believe that Haitians as a class are responsible for the death of Archdeacon William Thompson. I do not know who killed Archdeacon Thompson. I did identify the immigrant community in The Bahamas as an underclass which is dispossessed and for which there is considerable discrimination by the dominant culture. I believe that this discrimination is wrong, and I would want to disassociate myself from any remarks which would be interpreted as open season for lawless attacks on immigrants in the Bahamas.

Now that the record is straight on that issue I wish to turn to one specific aspect of Fred Smith’s remarks. This is quite apart from the odious personal remarks which he made. That is the attack on the PLP by suggesting that my remarks were part of “PLP hate-filled propaganda”. Mr. Smith ought to learn to temper his remarks and not get carried away in his quest for publicity. The fact is the PLP has always been a friend to the immigrant community in this country.

But as Opposition spokesman on Immigration it is incumbent upon me to state for the record that the PLP believes in law and order. And were it my lot under the Prime Ministership of Perry Christie to be the Immigration Minister of this country, I will support law and order. The breaching of the borders must be stopped, and the flow of illegal immigration must be stopped. We must of course honour all of our international and constitutional obligations to ensure the humane treatment of refugees and that proper interviews are done to ensure that no one is returned home who has a well grounded fear of persecution. Those obligations aside, illegal immigrants must be returned to their homes.

I would recommend to Fred Smith, since he is obviously ignorant of the history of The Bahamas, that he reads the book ‘The Haitian Problem’ by Dawn Marshall, the sister of Jeanne Thompson. In that book, she is able to show that the policies pursued by all Governments of The Bahamas have been exactly the same. The PLP did not pursue a policy which was any different from the colonial Government in the 1950s, the United Bahamian Party in the 1960s. The policy was expulsion. An interesting footnote in the Grand Bahama context is that Edward St. George, the now Chairman of the Grand Bahama Port Authority, was a magistrate in Nassau in the 1950s and while expressing sympathy for illegal Haitian immigrants he had to order their deportation to Haiti.

The FNM Government is now pursuing the same policy of expulsion.

Fred Smith has a nationality of origin of Haiti. He is also Bahamian citizen. As a Bahamian then he must surely understand that no nation can continue to have porous border. Its national security will be undermined, and law and order will not prevail. As a patriotic Bahamian then his first interest must be the peace and good order of this country. We would expect no less of him.

The one difference between the colonial period and the post independence period is that of the legal discrimination in the constitution against the children of persons born here whose parents are not Bahamian. It is that policy and the unwillingness or inability of the people of The Bahamas to stem the tide of illegal immigration that is responsible for the migrant underclass that

we find in The Bahamas today. But even that Mr. Smith ought to remember is a policy which was agreed to by the Free National Movement with the PLP at the constitutional talks in 1972 in London.

I wish to assure the Grand Bahama community of my continued participation in defending the human rights of all, and to assure them that while the PLP stands for law and order, it must have an humane face. That is the way it has always been and that is the way it will continue to be.

AND NOW TO ADDRESS THE HAIHTIAN COMMUNITY DIRECTLY: Recently, you heard stories that I Fred Mitchell said that Haitians were responsible for crime in the Bahamas. I said no such thing. Anyone who says I said it is a liar. I have told the truth. Many of your sons and daughters need citizenship of The Bahamas and I support that fact. I believe, however, in law and order. All of you who are lawfully within The Bahamas must know that we cannot continue to have illegal immigration. You must help us solve this problem. I hope that you will help us stop the illegal immigration and together we can work to solve the

problems of The Bahamas. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much indeed.

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