IACHR issues Merits Report in the case “Cuban and Haitian nationals detained at and deported from the Carmichael Road Detention Center vs. Commonwealth of the Bahamas”

Washington, D.C., April 20, 2022 – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) released its merits report in the case “Cuban and Haitian nationals detained at and deported from the Carmichael Road Detention Center vs. Bahamas,” in which it declared multiple human rights violations committed against some 200 Cuban and 130 Haitian asylum-seekers.

The case arises from two petitions presented by CEJIL to the IACHR in August 1998 and May 2000. It analyzes the arbitrary detention and inhumane detention conditions the migrants experienced, as well as their expedited deportation to Cuba and Haiti under bilateral agreements with those countries, without access to asylum.

Despite the fact that more than 20 years have passed since the facts were denounced, the case remains highly relevant today because persons in the context of human mobility in The Bahamas continue to face extreme vulnerability. The IACHR found in its report that the Bahamas’ legislation allows indefinite detentions without a clearly established basis in law which, therefore, were arbitrary and punitive in nature, “with the sole purpose and effect of punishing [the victims] for not holding a visa.”

Currently, appalling conditions continue to be reported at the Carmichael Road Detention Center, bilateral agreements to deport persons to Cuba and Haiti remain in force, and Bahamas has no refugee law. In recent months, the Bahamas has deported hundreds of asylum seekers fleeing the political and humanitarian crisis in the country to Haiti.

In its Merits Report, the IACHR recommends that the Bahamas arrange and deploy all necessary diplomatic measures to establish contact with all victims in order to make adequate reparations, take urgent measures to improve detention conditions at the Carmichael Road Detention Center, and establish mechanisms to prevent the repetition of the events described.  

In its report, the IACHR finds that:

• The Bahamas violated the rights to life, liberty, personal integrity, protection against arbitrary detention, non-discrimination, due process, protection of the family and children’s rights and the right to seek asylum.
• The Bahamas carried out arbitrary detentions because detention authority was not clearly established in law, detentions were not determined on a case-by-case basis and migrants lacked the possibility to contact consular authorities. 
• The conditions of detention violated the right to personal integrity, and constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
• The Bahamas violated the right to seek and receive asylum by not having a refugee law, by not carrying out individual evaluations and by carrying out deportations through bilateral agreements; it also violated the rights to due process, judicial guarantees, non-discrimination and the principle of non-refoulement. In addition, Bahamian immigration law criminalizes undocumented migration, labeling anyone who enters without a valid visa as an “illegal immigrant”.

The Bahamas is strategically located between Cuba, Haiti and Florida, just 150 miles from Miami. The country has historically received large numbers of Cuban and Haitian nationals fleeing their countries by boat, as well as asylum seekers of other nationalities.

Read the complete Merits Report here.