The Bahamian Government has declared that it cannot afford to ‘smilingly’ accept hundreds more Haitian asylum seekers.

The government says an open border policy for Haitians would put severe pressure on the country’s economy.

Prime Minister Phillip Davis explained that this is the reason the Bahamas did not sign on to what he called an ‘irregular migration declaration’ at the recently concluded Summit of the Americas in California given its peculiar circumstances.

He spoke in the aftermath of the deaths by drowning of 17 people, including an infant, and the rescue of 25 Haitians off the coast of The Bahamas last week.

At a televised press briefing on July 29, Commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police Force Paul Rolle confirmed the incident was a human smuggling matter and that three men were taken into custody.

According to Prime Minister Davis, “We are unable to open our borders to irregular migration and or refugees either because of our own limited resources and because they ask us to do things but, at the end of the day, who foots the bill? You, the taxpayers. The world is suggesting that we should absorb all of those who leave Haiti.”

Continuing, Davis remarked, “That’s what they will say to me.”

Haitian population in The Bahamas

Officials have put the local Haitian population in The Bahamas at more than 25 per cent of the overall national total given the large numbers of people arriving over the decades by boat.

The prime minister said that a group of regional prime ministers including the heads of government of Barbados, St Vincent, Jamaica and The Bahamas are on standby to lead a fact-finding mission to Haiti if and when the security situation improves.

No date for any Caribbean Community mission has even been touted, but officials at the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat have poured cold water on a pronouncement by Davis that a prime ministerial team intends to engage Haiti’s feuding gang leaders if or when they visit.

“The situation in Haiti is very serious and we don’t know what the outcome will be. There are talks about imposing the will of other countries on the people but, again, as I said, we want it to be a Haitian solution. Whether that is possible, we will only know as we engage with the gang leaders in Haiti, which we intend to do very shortly,” Davis said.

An official reported that no one would risk the safety of the prime ministers in engaging gang leaders, referring to the communiqué at July’s main leaders’ summit in Suriname, where reference was made to the possibility of a team engaging Haitian officials if the situation improves.