An exclusive Guardian poll has revealed that Haitian nationals living in the country are “furious” over the alleged beating of a Haitian detainee at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.
More than 95 percent of those polled in Nassau’s Haitian community said they are still deeply upset over last Tuesday’s events.
Pandemonium had broken out at the Centre after twenty-seven-year-old Jason Lionels was reportedly slapped in the chest and beaten with a gun by an officer, as he stood behind the fence talking to a female friend.
Shortly after the alleged incident, enraged visitors were forced from the compound, causing visiting hours to be cut short. Officers from The Carmichael Road Police Station had to be summoned to the scene to restore order. Scores of angry Haitians gathered on the outside of the facility demanding an end to the alleged “abuse” of their countrymen.
Now some in the Haitian community are speaking out.
“Abuse is always happening down there at the Detention Centre,” said Carmichael Road resident, Vivian Joseph. “I have had family who have been captured and placed in there and they said it was awful.
“We know that the detainees were caught in the country illegally but we just want our people to be treated fairly and not like animals,” she added. “Back in Haiti everyone knows about the Bahamian Detention Centre because of the horror stories they hear.” But some polled said they had no sympathy for detainees because they have knowingly broken the law by trying to smuggle their way into the country.
“They have entered the country illegally and they know it is wrong,” said Rene Delwi. “What they do is make it bad for people like me who are here legally so they should be treated like criminals because they are.” Still Hector Jean-Louis echoed Mrs Joseph’s claims that detainees should be treated humanely. The 45-year-old construction worker said, “It is like hell in there, “[They have] little food and water and there is constant talking down to [the detainees] by guards there.
“I know because people who were in there told me and I saw it when I went to visit my family,” the Joe Farrington Road resident continued. “Because of the incident Haitians in The Bahamas are furious.”
Haitian Ambassador to The Bahamas, Louis Harold Joseph, Mr Joseph has also recently admitted to the media that over the last two months the Haitian community in The Bahamas has become increasingly angry and aggressive.
By: JASMIN BONIMY, The Nassau Guardian
