Rick Lowe
Conditions reportedly remain so bad in Haiti that the UN asked several countries, The Bahamas included, if they would stop sending illegal Haitian's back home.
Apparently The Bahamas Government's position is to continue with repatriation efforts until further consultation with Haitian Officials.
Every time an issue with Haitian's comes up it reminds us all how lackadaisical we've been over the years with finding a permanent solution.
It seems impossible to prevent illegal landings with our limited resources and our huge area of open water doesn't help. I'm sure it's easy enough for interceptor vessels to pass sloops and other boat loads of people looking for a better life entering our territorial waters without seeing each other out there.
In other words, we have two problems. Illegal immigrants arriving on a daily basis and those many Haitian's that have lived here and in many instances, contributed to our country that have no status.
Now comes the hard part. How do we solve these issues?
It's so easy to say we'll stop the boats coming with our resources being what they are. So it seems we have to do a more effective job of "rounding the recent entrants up" and sending them back.
With regard to those illegal Haitians that have been here for generations we must consider giving them status and property rights of some sort. And no, they don't have to have the right to vote initially.
We were fortunate to be born in a relatively rich country where opportunity is available for advancement as a general rule. At least the majority of our poor population still seem to live better than most of Haiti's population. So somehow, we have to get past the emotions of this subject, even if only for a short while to arrive at some useful positions to move this issue from the stalemate it has become.
I've given my thoughts:
- Better policing of illegal immigrants that are here.
- Legalise the status of many of the Haitians that have been here for generations.
- Provide property rights for the areas they've squatted on and,
- Figure out how to phase their status in so they can eventually become full citizens or leave voluntarily.
What's your two cents?
Why does the Dominican Republic not open up their boarders ? I would think they should be a good neighbor right ?
I’m sure the DR must help in some way already simply because they border Haiti.
Although I don’t have the stats.
I would like to see them.I have been told that the DR does not want anything to do with them, how true that is I do not know.
Go to the head of the class Dennis.. You got it..
Then why does the UN not put the pressure on the DR ? I do not think the UN is worth two farts in the wind.They have their own agenda, period.A few years ago they had over $10 million in unpaid parking tickets in New York.You tell me, if they can’t even pay parking tickets, what makes them so great about solving the worlds problems ? My God, not long ago Gaddafi was in charge of the human rights commission ! In my opinion, they are a useless bunch that should all go home In stead of riding the US into the ground, which by the way, seems to be a part of their plan.Just look at how they hate Israel.If it was reversed & it was one little Arab nation surrounded by the Jews & constantly being blown up, the UN would be in a total uproar, this you can’t dispute.What purpose are they really serving ? I say, set up the UN in an Arab country like Iran, maybe that would be better.There is absolutely NO reason for them to dictate to our little country what we can & can’t do.
Agreed. But let’s cast the UN aside for a moment.
Is this a point in time because of the devastation et al in Haiti that we should take a humanitarian view, at least for a short while?
We’ve ignored the Haitian issue here for decades, what’s a couple more months?
We took that view when our PM did not send them back or lock them up for six months.There is only so much we can do & I think that’s already been done.I don’t know about you Rick, but I am over-taxed now & any more “Humanitarian efforts” will put our taxes up even more, make no mistake about it.We have to stop the flow & make a stand.The DR does it, Long Island does it, why can’t we ? Did you know that one of the dictionaries has the Bahamas first language as Creole ?