Not all that happened in the Dec. 9 disturbance involving immigrant detainees at Carmichael Detention Center in Nassau is clear. What is clear enough, though, is that a number of Cuban asylum seekers were injured while in custody. That fact and the center’s history of detainee abuse argue for an independent investigation by the Bahamian government and the U.N. High Commission for Refugees.
The Bahamas may be a poor country that can’t easily absorb asylum seekers, but that doesn’t excuse it for mistreating detainees or from obligations under international conventions.
The Bahamian government said that Cuban detainees refused the center’s food, locked officials out of a dorm and set a fire inside. Authorities then broke in and used rubber bullets to subdue the detainees. Reportedly, 20 people were hurt, including nine Cuban detainees — five of whom were hospitalized — and 11 Bahamian soldiers who suffered minor cuts and bruises.
Amnesty International reported unconfirmed allegations that several detainees, including women and children, were seriously beaten with batons and that the melee erupted after attempts to deport the Cubans back to Cuba. Amnesty, which called for an independent inquiry, has regularly criticized Bahamian detention practices. In October, it alleged that Haitian and Cuban detainees had been beaten and subjected to mock executions. Several detainees, including children, were forced to stand in the sun for hours without water. The group found unsanitary conditions, decrepit dorms, inadequate healthcare, beatings and sexual abuse at the center in 2003.
Human-rights advocates and detainees have denounced Bahamian mistreatment of immigrants for years. That immigrant children are locked up for months is reason alone to question the government’s practices. It’s time for the U.N. commission to act.
The Miami Herald
