A proposal by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) for The Bahamas and other countries in the region to sign labour migration accords with the Government of Haiti has won the support of a key Bahamian diplomat.
According to Bahamas Ambassador to Haiti Dr. Eugene Newry, such agreements between countries like The Bahamas and the Dominican Republic – which have historically received large numbers of Haitian migrants seeking employment – and the Haitian government could help to improve the regulation and control of migration to those countries.
Additionally, a labour migration accord could generate other benefits for both The Bahamas and Haiti, Dr. Newry said.
“This could be economically good for both sides,” he said.
“Don’t leave the economics out of it because such an arrangement is about more than just improving the structure of the immigration framework. This could also improve the economic structuring. For example, under the old ‘contract’ arrangement between The Bahamas and the United States back in the 1940s and early 1950s the workers’ salaries were actually controlled by the Government of The Bahamas.”
Outlining other details of how labour migration accords could be mutually beneficial, Dr. Newry said a more structured approach to engaging Haitian labour could help to satisfy this country’s demand for labour and also help with the development of Haiti, the Caribbean’s most impoverished nation.
“With the ‘contract’ that operated back then the salaries of these people were divided into three,” he said.
“One third went to the workers for their actual cost of living, a third sent back to the family back in The Bahamas and the rest was actually invested in The Bahamas by the Government of The Bahamas. Basically we could do the same thing and I am absolutely convinced that the authorities in Haiti would approve that.”
Earlier this month, the IOM released a report in which it supported the idea of accords between the Government of Haiti and other countries in the region, and also stated that the lack of an appropriate regime for labour migration in Haiti has allowed the irregular flow of Haitian labour to those countries.
“The absence of a legal framework has served to worsen the conditions under which Haitian labour migrant workers are contracted, live and work in,” the IOM’s chief of mission in Haiti said at that time.
Drawing once again on the example of the ‘contract’ arrangement that was a prominent part of Bahamian history during the middle part of the last century, Dr. Newry said such a system could help to address some of the challenges identified by the IOM.
“A contract means exactly what it says. It says that the person would come in for example six months, a year or two years, they would come without their families and then they would go home on regularly scheduled vacation, etc,” said the ambassador.
“They would get excellent healthcare while they’re here and they would have the appropriate housing and all the other accoutrements that go with that kind of contract.”
Turning to the Haitian elections which were recently postponed yet again – this time to February 7 – Dr. Newry said he does not expect that exercise will produce an immediate improvement in that country.
“The elections that are scheduled to go on in Haiti in the next two weeks are absolutely necessary for the internal regulation of things, but that will not have any economic effect for years to come,” he said.
“It can’t. The elections themselves aren’t going to change anything except to give an encouragement to the processes of democratisation that will occur over the years to come.”
Dr. Newry maintained that in order to help bring about economic improvement in Haiti, concerned parties will have to proceed with initiatives like labour migration accords.
He also indicated, however, that plans are proceeding “quite nicely” for the election in Haiti and cited a statement that the OAS released last Thursday which indicated that outside of Port-au-Prince major upheavals or episodes of violence are not expected in the run-up to the poll.
By: Darrin Culmer, The Bahama Journal
