FIND THE LATEST NEWS UPDATED EVERY DAY AT CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM
Vol. 30, Issue 41 BROOKLYN EDITION OCTOBER 18-24, 2019
MASS DEPORTATIONS
Haitian refugees in The Bahamas go into hiding
By Bert Wilkinson
The Bahamian government,
still reeling from last month’s
widespread destruction of
Abaco and Grand Bahama family
islands by Hurricane Dorian,
has begun mass deportation of
Haitian nationals in a move that
is being widely condemned by
civil society groups and the United
Nations.
Authorities in Nassau, the
capital of the multi islands
archipelago, have started to
arrange special charter flights
to take dozens of undocumented
Haitians back home. The move
is widely seen as an excuse to
purge Abaco and Grand Bahama
of so-called Haitian refugees,
especially because authorities
fear that many are so poor they
are going to begin rebuilding
shanty town enclaves as was the
case before Hurricane Dorian.
“We call on the authorities
to halt any further deportations
to Haiti at the moment,” the
UN’s Human Right Commission’s
office said in a mid-week
statement.
“We call on the government
to refrain from deporting individuals
who lack documentation
without the individual assessments
and due process guarantees
to which they are entitled
under international law.”
In recent days, a group of 112
A police offi cer stands guard as Haitian migrants waiting to get food distributed by humanitarian
organizations in Nassau, Bahamas, Sunday, Sept. 29, 2019. A preliminary
report estimates Dorian caused some $7 billion in damage, but the government has not
yet offered any fi gures. Associated Press / Ramon Espinosa
‘My client
is innocent’
says Justice
Ash’s lawyer
By Nelson A. King
T r i n i d a d i a n -
born attorney Roger
Archibald, who is representing
Caribbean-born
n
contice
Justice Sylvia Gwendolyn
Ash against charges of conspiracy
to obstruct justice and
categorinocent.
S. Berorney
obstruction of justice, categorically
says his client is innocent.
On Friday, Geoffrey Berman,
United States Attorney for
for
the Southern District of New
York, said that the charges
against Justice Ash, who was
born in Trinidad and Tobago to
Grenadian and Vincentian parents,
arise from “a scheme to
seek to influence and impede
an ongoing federal investigation
into fraud and corruption at
MCU (Municipal Credit Union),
a non-profit, multibillion-dollar
financial institution.”
Ash, 62, a Brooklyn resident,
is a presiding judge of the Kings
County (Brooklyn) Supreme
Court, Commercial Division, and
a former chair of MCU’s Board of
Directors.
“All charges against Judge
Ash are allegations,” Archibald,
also a Brooklyn resident, told
Caribbean Life in an interview
Wednesday night.
“Under our system of justice,
Continued on Page 12 Continued on Page 22
We've Got the Power!
/CARIBBEANLIFENEWS.COM