Amnesty International criticizes treatment of detainees in the Bahamas

Thursday, November 6, 2003

LONDON, England: Amnesty International in London released two highly critical reports Wednesday dealing with conditions in the Bahamas in relation to prison inmates and immigration detainees.

According to Amnesty, one in every 200 Bahamians is in prison. The rate of imprisonment in the Bahamas, 478 per 100,000, is the 8th highest in the world and four times that of the UK and Canada. Many prisoners continue to be detained in conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. A substantial number have been detained without trial for over two years.

Amnesty International visited the state's sole prison, HM Prison Fox Hill, in August 2002 with prison reform expert Professor Rod Morgan.

The key findings arising from the visit included the following: 

• Substantial numbers of prisoners, including minors, are awaiting trial for unacceptably long periods: 78 pre-trial prisoners had been detained over 2 years. They are becoming "lost in the system" through lack of legal representation.

• Unacceptably overcrowded accommodation was evidenced in all prison units, seriously affecting the living conditions for inmates and the working conditions for staff. Cells were dark and fetid, and many prisoners slept on cardboard. 

• Many prisoners are still subject to the degrading practice of slopping out while the prison still has inadequate plumbing and drainage system.

• With at least one death reportedly resulting from inadequate medical care, and several reported suicides at the prison, access to physical and mental health care in prison remains chronically lacking. There are high rates of infectious diseases including TB. Prisoners suffering from AIDS, HIV or TB do not receive adequate medical care or drugs. The risk of cross-contamination for infectious diseases such as TB to other prisoners and prison workers is dangerously high. 

• At the time of the visit there was only one full-time doctor for a population of over 1,000, and no psychiatrist. Psychiatric care is virtually non-existent. 

• There were serious concerns about female prisoners detained in punitive, solitary confinement. Physical and mental stress as a result is reported. Sufficient attention to women prisoner's particular specialist rights and needs is lacking and specialists in women's health care are allegedly unavailable.

• Employment opportunities were barely available. Untried prisoners do not work and are not given the opportunity.

• There have been repeated, unconfirmed, serious allegations of sexual abuse and rape which do not appear to have been adequately investigated by the authorities.

Visit http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR140042003 for the full report.

Amnesty International also has longstanding concerns regarding the treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers in the Bahamas and they say that successive administrations have failed to ensure that this vulnerable group is protected to the extent required by international law.

In August 2002 an Amnesty International delegation visited the Carmichael Immigration Detention Centre in the Bahamas (and other centres of detention) and spoke with Government Ministers and immigration officials. Since then the organisation has continued to monitor the treatment of those detained at the Centre.

The Carmichael Detention Centre in Nassau, New Providence, holds non-Bahamian nationals arrested for breach of immigration law provisions. Those detained include asylum-seekers. On 13 August 2002 the centre held 212 detainees of which 40 were female.

Amnesty International's key findings regarding conditions at the Carmichael Detention Centre include:

• Food and drink provision is inadequate; detainees appear to be supplied with only two nutritionally inadequate meals and allege they are not provided with drinking water

• Some detainees did not have mattresses and had to sleep on the floor. 

• The detainees appeared to lack lavatory paper, soap, toothbrushes or toothpaste, towels and soap powder.

• Detainees are not allowed the space to exercise (although this could be provided in the large flat ground surrounding the four huts where detainees are detained). 

• Detainees alleged that visiting rights had been restricted and that visits lasted five minutes. Access to the telephone is restricted to those detainees who can pay for it.

• There have been allegations of ill-treatment including sexual abuse.

• Medical care appears insufficient.

• The detention and treatment of children in the Centre breaches the Bahamas' international legal obligations and is cause for serious concern.

In Amnesty International's view, prolonged, arbitrary detention, the poor conditions observed at the Centre and reports of ill-treatment, amount in many cases to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. 

Amnesty International believes that urgent action is needed to end arbitrary detention of immigration detainees, investigate reports of ill-treatment and torture and better protect the rights of asylum-seekers and other migrants. The organisation is especially concerned about the rights of children; detained for inordinately long periods of time without regard to any of their rights, particularly rights to education, exercise and contact with family, with the likelihood of a severely detrimental effect on the children concerned.

Visit http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR140032003 for the full report. 

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