a944: Haitian Agricultural Labor in the Bahamas (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel Schweissing <dan_schweissing@hotmail.com>

Farmer Cumberbatch

Released Saturday, February 16, 2002 by Perry Scavella

Farmer calls for more positive approach to agriculture

By PERRY SCAVELLA

Guardian Staff Reporter

A local farmer said Government needs to take a more positive approach to
agriculture , become more involved in this aspect of industry "and stop
playing."

The farmer argued that the Government was not doing enough to ensure farm
labourers, equipment, and farming lands for Bahamians.

"It's about time they build a nation, and get serious about agriculture and
fishing," charged Paul Cumberbatch, 52, a farmer for 32 years, on Friday.
"Politics is just about everything they do."

Speaking on behalf of several other concerned farm owners, he admitted that
the majority of farm workers who worked on Bahamian farms were Haitian
nationals. He said Bahamians do not have the desire to become farm
labourers, and therefore farm owners must request labourers from the Labour
Board, Ministry of Labour and Immigration, for Haitian workers.

Cumberbatch added that it was a very tedious process of having a Haitian
national receive a work permit to work on the farms.

He stated: "First of all you would have to come to place your advertisement
in the newspaper. Then, you would have to carry the advertisement to the
Ministry of Labour where you would have to apply to the Labour Board for
consideration, which would take about four weeks or two months."

Furthermore, he argued that the Board would not give the farmers the work
permit forms even after a period of time has passed, until they were
satisfied that no one called for the position.

But even more frustrating, he explained, was that after a farmer would have
received and filled-out the form, he or she would still have to wait two
weeks before a decision from the director of the ministry to grant the
permit.

"But, that doesn't even guarantee you a success with Immigration," he
claimed. "When you go to Immigration they can still refuse you."

He further argued that a farmer would have to get an Immigration form to
fill-out plus take four photos of the Haitian national which would all be
added to the Labour Board letter including a police record and health
certificate.

After processing the information for the Haitian labourer, he said, a
request would have to be made to Vernon Burrows, Director of Immigration to
allow the labourer to work.

"After you wait a year or two years, sometimes even four years, they tell
you no," he argued.

Fully aware of the Haitian problems faced in this country, he explained that
the problem has been around since he was a farmer in his 20s. He added that
the greater Haitian community was within Abaco, the constituency which Prime
Minister Hubert Ingraham represents.

"You would see a lot of Haitians there (Abaco) and he hasn't done much about
that or in Freeport and that is where the Government is strong. So if the
Government was really serious about this problem they should had started in
Abaco then go to Freeport," he said.

However, he charged that Haitian nationals only used The Bahamas as a
transit point to the United States, and considered the Haitian problem to be
an American concern and not this country's real concern.

Additionally, he said, within construction and also landscaping were filled
with Haitian labourers and not Bahamian labourers.

Meanwhile, he noted that two tractors at an estimated cost of $14 million
which were used from the Bahamas Agricultural Research Centre (BRAC) in this
country, have not been working for several years. He explained that the
tractors were used to plough the ground for the planting of crops and
clearing fields.

"There were two sent to BARC for use and all two of them are broken down
because of parts," he said. "It was promised by Simeon Pinder, assistant
director (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) four years ago that he was
going to fix it and make it available to the farmers and today it hasn't
been fixed."

He noted the $50 million dollar road project the Government has undertaken,
stressing that they could have easily spent $2million to buy some equipment
to be used in agriculture.

Moreover, he claimed that during the Government's nine year period in
governing this country, more land should have been already made available
for young persons to venture into the agricultural business.

Additionally, he charged that more land should have been made available for
Bahamians to farm.

"Agriculture is a necessity of building a country, building a nation.
Without agriculture we have no nation and diversification is very important
at this time, especially when our bank secrecy has been destroyed," he said.

James Knowles, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, and Earl Deveaux,
Minister of Immigration and Labour, could not be reached for comment.

Copyright (c) 2001 by Nassau Guardian

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