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Amnesty International Report 2002 - Bahamas

Covering events from January-December 2001 Commonwealth of the Bahamas
Head of state: Queen Elizabeth II, represented by Orville Turnquest
Head of government: Hubert Alexander Ingraham
Capital: Nassau
Population: 0.3 million
Official language: English
Death penalty: retentionist

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Prisoners continued to be held in conditions which amounted to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. There were reports of ill-treatment and brutality. A child was reported to have been raped in prison by other inmates. Death sentences continued to be imposed by the courts; no executions were carried out. At least 22 people remained on death row, including one woman. There was continued concern that asylum-seekers were returned to their countries of origin without access to a full and fair determination procedure, in violation of international standards.

Death penalty

At least 22 people, including one woman, remained on death row at the end of the year, according to official figures. Remanded prisoners continued to be held on death row with convicted prisoners.

• Eddison Thurston, a death-row inmate, died in March in Fox Hill prison. In October a coroner's inquest jury found that he had committed suicide in his cell, and returned a verdict of gross negligence on the part of the prison service.

Prison conditions

There was continued concern that conditions within prisons constituted cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Reports persisted of severe overcrowding and of prisoners being locked in their cells for nearly 24 hours a day.

Reports of serious diseases among inmates and of inadequate medical treatment exacerbated fears about conditions of detention in prisons. In July, 100 prisoners were reported as having contracted tuberculosis, although the Ministry for National Security later stated that only 10 cases had been confirmed. Although the Ministry of Health announced in July that all inmates would be tested for tuberculosis, a doctor at Fox Hill prison complained in August that he had been refused permission by the prison authorities to carry out the tests.

Children continued to be detained with adults, putting them at risk of sexual and physical abuse.

• International concern was expressed in October about reports that a 17-year-old inmate had been raped in August by three other inmates in Fox Hill prison. The acting prison superintendent publicly denied the allegations. The incident was still being investigated by police officers attached to the prison at the end of the year.

Asylum-seekers

Asylum-seekers from Haiti and Cuba continued to be forcibly returned without prior access to a full and fair determination procedure, in violation of international law. Many were also held in detention. In July several asylum-seekers died attempting to reach the Bahamas after the boat they were travelling in was shipwrecked.

In July AI urged the government of the Bahamas to ensure that Haitian nationals seeking asylum would be granted full and fair access to refugee determination procedures. The government replied that it believed that the majority of undocumented Haitian nationals attempting to enter the Bahamas were "economic migrants" and not genuine political refugees. The government stated that it used a systematic procedure, approved by the regional officer for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), for the processing of undocumented foreign nationals. AI's request for further information about these procedures had not received a response by the end of the year.

Police ill-treatment

There were several reports alleging ill-treatment of detainees by police officers.

• In April, two children and two men were allegedly ill-treated by police following their detention without charge by unidentified officers. All four suffered serious bruising resulting from beatings at the time of arrest and during their three-day detention by officers of the Criminal Investigations Department. Police allegedly placed plastic bags over their heads to try to obtain confessions.