CHALLENGES OF ILLEGAL MIGRATION; CAN THE BAHAMAS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 NASSAU 002321

SIPDIS

PRM FOR NANCY IRIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/24/2013
TAGS: PREF PREL PHUM SMIG BF
SUBJECT: CHALLENGES OF ILLEGAL MIGRATION; CAN THE BAHAMAS
MANAGE?

Classified By: CHARGE ROBERT M. WITAJEWSKI FOR REASONS 1.5 (B) AND (D).

SUMMARY


1. (C) Nancy Iris, Deputy Director for the Bureau of
Population, Refugee and Migration (PRM) visited Nassau from
October 13 - October 17, 2003. The Political Officer and Ms.
Iris attended meetings with various government officials,
members from NGOs, and toured the migrant detention center in
Nassau. With U.S. Coast Guard assistance, Ms. Iris was also
able to visit Great Inagua, an island strategically located
on the southern flank of the Bahamas, in an area particularly
vulnerable to the passage of migrants and contraband. A
small, temporary migrant facility has been established on
Great Inagua, and The Bahamas has proposed constructing a
larger, more permanent, and better-equipped detention center
along with a military base on the island. Ms. Iris concluded
that a necessary first step in the process would be
preparation of a master plan and cost estimate for new
facilities on Great Inagua prior to USG consideration of any
investment. Ms. Iris also began a dialogue with Bahamian
officials regarding the development of a contingency plan in
case of a large influx in migration. Government and
non-government representatives welcomed this proposal,
admitting The Bahamas has no such plan in place.
End Summary.


DEPARTMENT OF IMMIGRATION UNPREPARED FOR MASS MIGRATION


2. (C) Nancy Iris was able to elicit candid responses
from the Director of Immigration Vernon Burrows regarding the
Bahamian lack of planning or resources available if a spike
in the level of migration should occur. He admitted,
"Migration is a scary issue for us. We can't handle more
(migrants) than we already have." According to Burrows, the
detention center on Carmichael Road in Nassau has the
capacity to house 500 migrants indoors, with enough land to
erect tents to provide shelter for an additional 500
detainees. Currently in this Detention Center there are just
under 200 people being detained, the majority being Haitians
and Cubans. If there should be a sudden increase in these
numbers, there is no GCOB (Government of the Commonwealth of
The Bahamas) plan for how to attain the additional food,
beds, or shelter. Burrows suggested that GCOB has no
contingency plan for a spike in migration, although this was
disputed by other government officials who claimed that a
draft plan is under preparation.


3. (C) Senior Immigration Official Mechelle Martinez-Amor
explained the complexity and inefficiency of processing
asylum request in The Bahamas. Once Ms. Martinez-Amor, or
one of her very few trained colleagues, has completed the
interview, the information is sent to UNHCR in Washington for
an assessment of the case. Their recommendation is then
forwarded to the Department of Immigration, who then passes
it to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Cabinet approval.
She admits that this is a slow and laborious process,
especially given that the final designation must be made by
Cabinet, an unusually high level of decision making for such
a determination.


4. (C) Ms. Martinez-Amor told Ms. Iris that where Cubans
are automatically pre-screened for asylum, Haitians must
request the interview. Few Haitians actually request an
interview for asylum, perhaps because they believe their
efforts would be futile. Haitians are also at a disadvantage
in the interview process because there is no full-time
Creole-speaker at the detention center, and despite
relatively high Haitian' migrants' rate of illiteracy, there
is limited help in filling out the requisite forms for
seeking asylum. For calendar year 2002, only four migrants
were given refugee status, according to Bahamian officials.


SALVATION ARMY AND OFDA NOT IMPRESSED WITH GOVERNMENT PLANNING


5. (C) Major Raphael Mason, Director of the Salvation
Army in The Bahamas and local UNHCR representative, told Ms.
Iris that he had made an offer to the Director of Immigration
Vernon Burrows to provide meals and support for the detention
center if the number of detainees exceeded the facility's
capacity. The Salvation Army currently operates a daily
feeding program for 60-100 people. The Salvation Army head
disagreed with Immigration Head Burrows' assessment that the
detention center could hold up to 1,000 migrants. Mason also
requested that UNHCR representatives come to The Bahamas to
do an awareness program on migrant issues.


6. (C) Ms. Beryl M. Armbrister, consultant to the Office
of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA),provided insight into
the government perspective of contingency planning. She
noted that the head of the National Disaster Planning
Commission is Mr. Carl Smith, Under Secretary of Finance in
the Prime Minister's office. Because this organization is
not formal or legislated, and Mr. Smith's position is not
permanent, Ms. Armbrister believes that this organization
lacks continuity and effectiveness. She proposes that this
organization apply for a more formal status by achieving a
legislated mandate under the Cabinet. Political Officer
learned that such a proposal is working its way slowly
through the Bahamian system. Apparently, it is "stuck" in
the Attorney General,s office.


DISCONNECT WITHIN GOVERNMENT REGARDING MIGRATION ISSUES AND
GREAT INAGUA


7. (C) Mr. Peter Deveaux-Isaacs, the Under Secretary at
the Ministry of National Security, is convinced of the
necessity for The Bahamas to develop a base on Great Inagua
for the Royal Bahamas Defence Force. Great Inagua is
strategically located 50 nautical miles north of the Windward
Passage, the maritime choke point between Haiti and Cuba.
Much of the contraband smuggled through the Caribbean, be it
migrants or drugs, is smuggled through the Windward Passage.
Deveaux-Isaacs acknowledged that "as a sovereign nation, we
can't always expect people to do things for us", referring to
OPBAT and Coast Guard operations. If possible he would like
to build a multipurpose facility in Great Inagua to house
500-600 people.


8. (C) The southern flank of The Bahamas is a "nightmare
to patrol", but with a fueling station at Great Inagua,
Deveaux-Isaacs thinks the Defence Force could save a great
deal of resources that are currently wasted by travel time to
Nassau for refueling and crew rest. Deveaux-Isaacs expressed
a hesitancy to use the U.S. Naval Facility at Guantanamo Bay
to refuel because he fears that utilization of this option
might lead the USG to conclude that The Bahamas does not need
to develop Great Inagua, relying instead on GTMO, and be less
than forthcoming with assistance as a result. Unlike his
many counterparts in the government, Deveaux-Isaacs seems to
believe that a Great Inagua based could be developed without
U.S. assistance.


9. (U) The migrants that are detained in Great Inagua now
are held at the small RBDF site on the island adjoining the
airport. Because of its very limited resources, all effort
is made to repatriate these migrants within 48 hours.
Although strategically located to interdict Haitian migrants,
the shallow marine basin in Great Inagua is incapable of
handling any US Coast Guard vessels. As a result, migrants
must be shuttled off cutters to the island via small boats.


10. (C) Ms. Donna Lowe, the Deputy Permanent Secretary of
the Legal Division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave a
much different perspective than Immigration Director Vernon
Burrows regarding a migration and natural disaster
contingency plan. According to Lowe, not only did she
recommend that migration be taken into consideration after
attending a UNHCR meeting in Miami in December 2002, but she
also indicated that a plan to incorporate this contingency is
in an advanced stage of preparation. Apparently the
Government of the Bahamas went to the University of Southern
Florida to request assistance in this process. She admitted,
however, that getting the draft legislation is a slow process
because it was not very high on the priority list at the
Attorney General's office.


11. (C) Ms. Lowe claims to have encouraged the Attorney
General to make a migration contingency plan because both
UNHCR and Amnesty International have continuously criticized
The Bahamas for the treatment of migrants and the lack of a
coherent plan for the future. Although it wasn't to be
distributed to the public until November 5, Lowe had seen an
advanced copy of the new Amnesty International report on The
Bahamas, and she admitted it is extremely critical of the
government's handling of migration and detention issues.


DETENTION CENTER NEEDS FUNDING


11. (C) The Detention Center on Carmichael Road in Nassau
appears inadequate in terms of space and services for the
number of detainees currently housed there. On the day of
Ms. Iris' visit, there were a total of 156 migrants being
detained. Of these there were 56 Haitians and 80 Cubans with
the balance made up of migrants from Venezuela, Honduras,
Jamaica, Ecuador, Nigeria, China, Cape Verde, the
Netherlands, and Dominican Republic. Haitians typically are
repatriated much more quickly than other nationalities at an
average of 5 days. Cubans tend to be detained on average for
approximately 6 to 8 months at a time while the Bahamian
government negotiates with the Cuban government for their
repatriation. Children held at this facility are given no
access to education even if their length of stay extends for
several months. Limited healthcare, restricted access to
outside communication and legal advice, difficulty in
obtaining toiletries and necessary clothing, and small food
portions are the main complaints from migrants.


12. (C) Five large cinder-block huts sit on the Detention
Center land holding approximately 65 beds each. The
Department of Immigration handles the administrative tasks at
the detention center, and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force
handles all security issues. Although a doctor was
originally scheduled to be on-site on a daily basis, the
Chief Immigration Officer Hubert Ferguson said in actuality
the doctor pays weekly visits to the center. Relatives can
visit during visitation hours and bring goods.


13. (C) Should the Detention Center ever receive a large
increase in its numbers, Ferguson admitted that the sewage
and plumbing systems, security and the current food
distribution method would be woefully inadequate. The
Detention Center currently offers no opportunity for
recreation for the migrants. There is no television, books,
or any other form of entertainment. Some of the migrants are
held at this center for months at a time with little contact
to the outside world. Ferguson admitted a fear of an
uprising should the migrants' numbers increase. Various
ethnic groups of different languages and cultures are held in
the same dorms at a time.


14. (SBU) "Bahamas: Forgotten Detainees? Human Rights in
Detention", an Amnesty International Report released on
November 5, 2003, paralleled Embassy observations of the
conditions in the Carmichael Detention Center. Bahamian
Government officials have defensively responded that these
reports were "unbalanced" while acknowledging that they are
trying to improve both prison and detention facilities.
(septel)

COMMENT


15. (C) GCOB officials in the Ministries of Labour and
Immigration, Foreign Affairs and National Security all agreed
that The Bahamas needs to add a mass migration contingency
component to its ongoing natural disaster planning. This
idea was also supported by the Salvation Army, which
identified areas in which it could be helpful in the event of
such an emergency, and by AID/OFDA's regional consultant. To
date, the GCOB has taken its first wobbling step in this
direction by moving to make its national disaster-planning
group an official and legislated office.


16. (C) The state of planning to develop Great Inagua
into a larger detention center with an augmented facility for
the Royal Bahamas Defence Force depends heavily upon whom you
talk within the Bahamian government. Although all are in
agreement that Great Inagua -- geographically close to both
Haiti and Cuba -- is perfectly located for both a re-fueling
station and migrant detention center, many are doubt that the
Bahamian government will be able to commit sufficient
resources to even initiate and see to fruition such a massive
project given other, equally compelling, demands on its
limited resources. Prime Minister Christie argued to
President Bush at their breakfast meeting in New York City
recent breakfast meeting for help in developing Great Inagua.
The benefits of this development are numerous, but a major
investment would be required to expand the harbor, dredge an
entrance and construct a breakwater, build the detention
center, upgrade airport facilities, and construct the needed
infrastructure to provide communications water, electricity,
and waste disposal. Prior agreement on the conditions under
which the USG could use these facilities would also be
required and is likely to be a lengthy process as well.
WITAJEWSKI