A man who has been detained twice at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre this year says he witnessed brutal beatings at the facility carried out by guards and described the conditions behind the barbed wire as both ﾓdegradingﾒ and ﾓhumiliatingﾒ.
David Bright, 36, a British businessman, says detainees are treated with ﾓdisdain and animosityﾒ and subjected to filthy and inadequate conditions in which to eat, shower, and sleep.
Mr Bright, who was incarcerated at the detention centre in January and again in June of this year, spoke to The Tribune following a riot at the facility last week that left 20 guards and detainees needing medical treatment.
London-based Amnesty International has now called for a commission of inquiry to be set up to investigate the alleged treatment of detainees by guards during the riot. In October the human rights group condemned the centre and revealed allegations of alleged torture and inhumane treatment.
Frustrated
Mr Bright said: ﾓI have witnessed at first hand brutal beatings by guards and been a part of it. They become frustrated and snap having to work in that environment. They are showing their position of strength and abuse that position. Detainees cannot fight back and have to just take it. These people are not convicted criminals they are detainees looking for a better life and they are treated appallingly by the Bahamian government. Human rights issues in this country need to be addressed urgently.ﾒ
Mr Bright says he does not blame individual members of the Defence Force who guard the centre, but blames the environment in which they work for contributing to the problems they cause.
Mr Bright said that he has also been detained at Her Majestyﾴs Prison at Fox Hill and stressed conditions at the detention centre are worse than at the notorious jail.
He said: ﾓPeople in the Bahamas have to ask why Cuban refugees who have literally risked their lives to escape the oppression in their own country are driven to burn down Bahamian property when they had no argument with the Bahamas or its people. Although I in no way condone their behaviour and the actions they took, people must realise they were driven to it by their treatment and the conditions they are forced to endure. The Immigration Minister Vincent Peet says a full police investigation was conducted and there was no evidence of any abuse. It was so basic in its predictability. They did a review. There was no investigation by an independent body and it was not sufficient to address the issues.ﾒ
Inadequate
Mr Bright said the meals served to detainees are completely inadequate in quantity and nutritional value. ﾓIn the nine days I was detained, I never received a third meal during the day. You may get a boiled egg and some bread for breakfast or a small plate of grits. Lunch is just rice and some sauce poured on it. That was it for the day. No one expects people held in the centre to be fed three course meals three times a day, but the provisions there are completely inadequate.ﾒ
People are confined to bunk-beds in dormitories with no mattress, no pillow and no blankets, he said.
He added: ﾓThe Prime Minister, Mr Christie, comes with the title Right Honourable. He should utilise that title with everything he does.
Faith
ﾓHe should standby his Christian faith and the people of the Bahamas and that includes the human rights of detainees and the incarcerated who only want freedom. Human rights in the Bahamas are seriously lacking and there are some very real issues that need to be dealt with immediately. Mr Christie, as head of government, should take the responsibility and sort out the problems immediately. ﾓUnfortunately the Bahamas is riddled with apathy and there is complete indifference to people detained in this country. The government can spend more than a million dollars on Junkanoo parades but canﾴt afford to improve the inhumane provisions at the detention centre. Doesnﾴt that say it all?ﾒ
The Tribune
December 15, 2004
