NASSAU, Bahamas--Scores of residents living in a shantytown in New Providence in The Bahamas were left homeless on Friday after government officials cleared the crowded community of makeshift structures.
Kirkland Neely, officer-in-charge of the Immigration Enforcement Unit, said residents had ample time to prepare. “The people were given notice from last year,” Neely said as a tractor tore down homes behind him.
“About two months ago they were given six weeks’ notice again that we were coming in and try to clean out shantytowns. That time has passed. In this process we are checking for illegals and we are also treating people with respect and decency. We have to make a stand to show that we are serious about clearing out all shantytowns in The Bahamas. So if they are wise, they would do the necessary thing to get their act cleaned out.”
After interviewing Neely, a Haitian man emerged from nearby bushes, his feet blackened from the muck. He was carrying the cover for a cooler, which he gave to a woman. She was standing guard over what remained of her possessions.
In addition to the Department of Immigration, officials from the Department of Environmental Health Services, the Department of Social Services and police were on the scene. Immigration was seen apprehending several people believed to be illegal migrants.
The shantytown, which officials estimate to house over 200 people, was bustling with residents who were trying to clear out their homes. Trucks flooded the area as people loaded them up with mattresses, dressers, mirrors, refrigerators, washing machines and suitcases.
It was unclear where the trucks were headed, but the drivers didn’t linger once they had cargo loaded. Franc Santiny stood a few feet from where her home once stood. She was loading up a truck with what she had left.
“I don't know where I’m going,” she told The Guardian. “I was out carrying my children to school this morning and my boyfriend called me to say, ‘Franc hurry up, the tractor coming and they trying to knock everything down.’ I thought he was lying [until] I came and saw it.
“I asked someone to please give me a chance to bring some stuff out [out of my home]. He said okay and I got some of my stuff. The only thing now is I don’t have a place to go with my four children. Everything’s gone now. I only got what I could get. I couldn’t get everything.”
Santiny said she had no idea the shantytown was targeted from demolition Monday. “If I knew, I was moving,” she said. I have no problem with that.” Santiny said watching a tractor uproot her home was gut-wrenching. “You don't have to do the Haitian like that,” she said.
“Everybody is one blood. If you cut me, no matter what, it’ll be the same blood as yours. This is not fair. I have four children and when I pick them up today we won’t have anywhere to go.”
The Gamble Heights shantytown was the scene of a police involved shooting in August. Police shot and killed a man in the area after he “violently resisted arrest”. Two police cars were damaged in that incident.
Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell has said some people “absorbed themselves” into the community because they felt the law could not pursue them. He said last year immigration had to withdraw from Gamble Heights because residents started to rise up.
One resident, who did not wish to be named, said he was at work when he found out about the exercise. “Somebody called me and said a backhoe came to break everything down,” he said. I came, saw the backhoe and now I don’t know where I’m going exactly. I just bring everything and put it across the road and I wait. “Now, I’m waiting for them to destroy my house.”
Patrick Charles, who claimed he owns the property, said he’s relieved that something is finally being done to clear out the community. Charles said he’s being trying to deal with the shantytown for eight years.
“The deal was they were supposed to give me something but nobody does,” he said. “They always say, ‘Oh I’m not working. Oh my boss didn’t pay me or something else.’ In order to solve all of that I went to the Department of Environmental Health to get the place torn down. It was a fight, but the response now is positive. Of course everybody is upset about it. I’ve been getting blamed for so many things that have been happening up here. I have no part of what has been going on. What I know is I want the whole place to get tear down. That’s the bottom line.”
Charles said he let the residents build on his property because his family is of Haitian descent and he felt pressured to help. These people have no conscience for me,” he said.
“They don’t care about me. Right now I’m interrupting their little welfare. They don’t care about me, but this is where they will care because I don’t want nobody up here except me.”
Residents listening to the interview started shouting “selfish” at Charles. But Charles didn’t seem deterred saying that many of them were “ungrateful”.
Terry Joseph, a resident of the community, said no one was prepared. “We just saw the trucks pull up,” he said. “We didn’t even have notice of what was going on. The children went to school and when 3:00pm comes the children won’t have a place to live.”
When asked where he plans to live, Joseph said, “I’ll be honest I’ll sleep in my car. I’m a man. All I need is a bucket of water, soap and my toothbrush and I’m good. But I’m homeless.” But Neely said the residents had ample time to prepare. The people had no excuse,” Neely said. “They knew we were coming.”
He said the exercise will take place over several days as the shantytown is “huge”.
