Amnesty International has opened a new investigation into allegations of torture and beatings of Cubans and Haitians in a Bahamian holding camp where detainees also have allegedly been denied medical treatment.
Detainees describe the Carmichael Detention Center in Nassau, human rights investigators say, as “a hell-hole” rife with brutality and void of basic needs.
Bahamian officials said Tuesday that their preliminary investigation shows the allegations are unfounded, but have asked an independent agency to conduct a inquiry.
Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell told The Herald that the allegations appear to be exaggerated.
“The Bahamas has absolutely no interest in encouraging torture, beating, any of those inhumane treatments against people who are in detention,” Mitchell said. “All of us who are part of the government are sensitive to international human rights law and to the morals and ethics of treating people properly.
“So where there are these allegations we believe it’s our duty to investigate them and if they are found to be correct to ensure that they don’t happen again.”
Amnesty, which issued a scathing report about the center last year, launched its investigation last week after another rights group visited the camp last month and issued an urgent appeal.
Investigators from the Committee to Aid Human Rights Activists, which is based in North Bergen, N.J., said they were horrified by the conditions and treatment of detainees, among them men forced to flee Cuba because of their pro-democracy activities.
Carmichael has a capacity for 500 people, and currently houses 72 Cubans and 24 Haitians. Haitians are quickly repatriated after they are deemed to be economic, not political refugees, said Vincent Peet, minister of labor and immigration.
Many of the Haitians who were allegedly mistreated have already been returned to Haiti, according to human rights activists.
“We were appalled at the brutally inhumane treatment these refugees are receiving,” the New Jersey group said in a letter distributed last week to government officials. “The first impression we had was that the locale looked like a concentration camp.”
Guards at Carmichael held mock executions of detainees after an escape, Luis Israel Abreu, executive director of the New Jersey rights organization, said in a telephone interview.
He said medicine, hygiene items and adequate food are not provided, and although many detainees arrive without having had a shower for days they are not afforded one.
The detainees are fed three meals a day and receive medical care, Peet said.
“Obviously, a detention center would not be a hotel,” he said. “But standards are maintained.”
Olivia Streater of Amnesty, author of Amnesty’s original report, said conditions at Carmichael had improved after Amnesty’s 2003 report, but appear to have slipped.
“Amnesty International is concerned that the conditions at the center are intended to persuade detainees to abandon their claims for asylum, and that they risk being forcibly returned without their claims being heard,” Streater said in written statement.
By Michael A.W. Ottey, The Miami Herald
