NASSAU, Bahamas (CMC) — The Bahamas Government has described as “unsubstantiated and duplicative”, the alleged human rights violations before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Minister of State for Legal Affairs Elsworth Johnson said had the Government been allowed to object to the request for a hearing, the rights of migrants and their descendants as raised by the human rights group, Rights Bahamas, could have been avoided.

The request for the hearing was filed by Rights Bahamas in conjunction with US-based Robert F Kennedy Human Rights.

“As pointed out in our preliminary observations, many of the allegations suffer from lack of proper substantiation,” Johnson said as he defended the Government during the IACHR meeting that took place in Jamaica last weekend.

“With respect to the allegation of entrenched racial discrimination and xenophobia, it is expected in some society where there are significant migrant populations, there are bound to be persons who have anti-migrant sentiments. Such behaviour is neither tolerated nor condoned, and certainly not encouraged by the Commonwealth of The Bahamas,” Johnson said.

Rights Bahamas said the hearing was “in light of the many reports of human rights abuses, illegal detention and deportation exercises, the implementation of racist and xenophobic policies, the targeting of persons of Haitian descent born in The Bahamas, denial of the right to school to children of migrants and the ongoing inhumane and unsanitary conditions at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre”.

“The IACHR was told of the Minnis Administration’s shantytown demolition policy, over which the Supreme Court has issued an injunction preventing further homes from being destroyed in New Providence.

“The application noted that despite the injunction, the Government persists in its efforts to demolish shanty towns on the Family Islands and Abaco,” the human rights group said.

The Government last year gave residents of most shantytowns on New Providence until August 10 to leave before demolition was set to begin. However, in August, Supreme Court Justice Cheryl Grant-Thompson granted an injunction blocking the demolition of shantytown structures in New Providence.