The Bahamas has appointed a new administrator for a controversial immigration detention facility, following repeated allegations of abuse reported by human rights groups, the Bahamian media and most recently The Herald.
Ed Culmer, the superintendent of the prison in Nassau, will take over the Carmichael Detention Centre outside the city, where migrants from Haiti and Cuba are locked up while their requests for political asylum are processed.
The government has dismissed the allegations of abuses, first made by Amnesty International in 2003. The London-based organization reported detainee complaints that guards beat them, forced several to eat off the ground, raped two women and subjected two Cuban men to mock executions. The Herald visited the center and reported similar allegations in a story published Jan. 23.
Culmer’s appointment may signify reforms to come. He told a news conference that he would review procedures at Carmichael to “see if they correspond with Amnesty and other human rights laws.”
He also raised the question of whether soldiers from the Royal Bahamas Defence Force should continue to guard the facility. ”I don’t think we need a military style place there, because these persons are coming looking for a better life,” he was quoted as saying by The Tribune, of Nassau.
It is the guards, not immigration administrators, who are accused of abuse. Other areas of possible change, according to Culmer: “Many of the immigrants, especially Haitian come in relatively sick. I would like to see them get appropriate attention.”
The Bahamas chain stretches 700 miles from near Florida to the northern coasts of Cuba and Haiti. Many of the immigrants caught there are trying to reach Florida.
Joe Mozingo, The Miami Herald
