The issue that I have focused on the most in this blog is the Haitian migrant crisis. Haitians are fling their native country due to violence, particularly gang violate and hurricane destruction. In spite of this The Bahamian government is mass deporting Haitians, including those who had lived in the Bahamas for many years. This is in violation of the Bahamas own constitution, particularly the article on “Protection from arbitrary arrest or detention”. This is also leaving these refugees with no safe place to go, as other neighboring countries are responding similarly.
There is a serious stigma around Haitians that immigrated to the Bahamas. Haitians are stereotyped as being illegal, having poor education, and living in poverty. There is also a language barrier that Haitians face when trying to get a job. Do to these reasons the native Bahamian people have a tendency to view Haitian immigrants through an ethnocentric leans while judging them with out seeing the full context. This also leads to Haitian who have managed to find refuge in the Bahamas to have issues in adjusting to the new place and people.
This is with the caveat that native Bahamians are not actually native to the islands. Most Bahamians are decedents of slaves that were brought over from America. Even though the Haitian people are also descended from enslaved peoples, the stigmas around those who are not ‘native’ to the Bahamas remains.
The refugees are detained, often even before they arrive on land. This year (2022) in august, 111 refugees were detained off the coast near Guinchos Cay, between the Bahamas and Cuba. The group consisted of 92 men, 14 women and five children. The Bahamas government said that they expect to detain a record number of refugees this year among mounting violence in Haiti. In august, The Bahamas had already detained 2,350 people compared with 1,644 in 2021 and 249 in 2020. Although these numbers were likely affected by the pandemic, it is concerning how the numbers have risen. (see the apnews article for reference).
There are efforts to help these people, but I wanted to focus on this angle as it is happening. but is wanted to include an acknowledgement that there are people in The Bahamas who want to help Haitians, and are actively doing so.
https://apnews.com/article/arrests-haiti-puerto-rico-bahamas-80987f969614c03e574d4b628678e196
https://avalon.law.yale.edu/diana/haitibahama.asp