标签： Bahamas

At the recent signing-on ceremony for the 81st cohort of Squad A, Bahamas Department of Corrections Commissioner Doan Cleare made controversial and striking remarks that laid bare a persistent recruitment crisis plaguing the island nation’s uniformed correctional services. While addressing the new group of incoming trainees, Cleare drew sharp distinctions between how the department will handle disciplinary issues for female and male recruits, rooted in a stark imbalance in qualified applicant pools.

Cleare openly warned female trainees that a single major misstep would lead to immediate termination, explaining that the department already holds a waiting list of more than 400 qualified women eager to join the ranks. For struggling male recruits, however, he said leadership would take a more lenient approach, attempting to guide and “massage” underperforming men into meeting standards — a concession born out of a years-long shortage of qualified male candidates. He did note that repeated or severe misconduct would still result in dismissal for male recruits.

The scale of the recruitment shortfall became clear when Cleare outlined the department’s targets and final intake numbers. Originally, the department planned to bring in 70 men and 30 women for the new recruit class. After being unable to meet the male quota despite a nationwide search, leadership was forced to adjust the target to 60 men and 40 women. Even with that revised goal, the current cohort stands at 41 men and 38 women; seven additional recruits are set to join this week, but the department will still end up 12 men short of the adjusted target.

Commissioner Cleare emphasized that the gender gap is not a reflection of women’s ability to perform correctional work, noting that female applicants consistently meet the department’s minimum entry requirements. Rather, uniformed branches still maintain a need for more male personnel for operational reasons, and qualified male candidates have become increasingly hard to source. Cleare and his team traveled to every island across the Bahamas archipelago to recruit, yet still failed to fill all open male spots.

The core barrier to entry, Cleare explained, is a failure among many male applicants to meet the minimum educational requirement of five Bahamas Junior Certificate (BJC) passes. Most male candidates only present two or three passes, which is not enough to qualify for recruitment.

Tracing the origins of the shortage, Cleare said the decline in qualified male applicants first became noticeable around 2012 and 2013. By 2021, he confirmed that other major Bahamian uniformed services — including the Royal Bahamas Police Force and Royal Bahamas Defence Force — are grappling with the same recruitment challenge. Speaking on the sidelines of the ceremony, Cleare linked the shortage to broader educational and social disparities, particularly in the more populated islands of New Providence and Grand Bahama.

Growing up on a smaller Family Island, Cleare recalled that male students were traditionally eager to learn and focused on their education. But in the country’s two most populated islands, he said, many young men are drawn to gang activity, adopt disruptive behavior in classrooms, and often choose substance use including marijuana and alcohol over pursuing their education. When these young men struggle to find work later in life, he added, they often blame the government rather than their own lack of qualifications.

Cleare pointed to the government’s National Youth Guard programme as a promising potential pipeline to expand the pool of qualified young men for uniformed services. However, he noted that the Department of Corrections has often been slow to access this talent pool: by the time corrections officials connect with programme participants, police and defence force recruiters have already hired all the qualified male candidates, leaving only female applicants for corrections.

Beyond the general gender gap in recruitment, Cleare also highlighted a shortage of skilled tradespeople within the department, noting that the BDOCS has recently lost retired workers with specialized technical skills including air-conditioning repair, fencing, and plumbing, with no qualified recruits waiting to fill those roles.

Department officials estimate that the recruit trainee programme typically sees a dropout rate between one and two percent, a relatively small share of the overall incoming class.

For nearly 12 months, a downtown Nassau retail business has grappled with a revolting, recurring problem: repeated discoveries of suspected human waste dumped on its property, pushing staff to clean up the hazardous mess again and again. The operation’s leader is now speaking out, demanding a stronger law enforcement presence in an overlooked section of the city’s central district.

Michelle Palamino, general manager of local sporting goods outlet Hoffer Sport, told reporters the unsanitary issue has persisted through months of her team’s attempts to block trespassers from accessing vulnerable parts of the property. Both Palamino and police investigators suspect a homeless individual is responsible for the ongoing incidents, though no person has been identified or caught in the act to date.

The problem first emerged in a secluded side corner of the business’ lot. Palamino explained that the spot became a gathering point after an adjacent property installed fencing to push vagrants off its own land. To resolve the issue, Hoffer Sport’s owner paid to erect a new barrier blocking off the corner — but the trespassing and waste dumping simply shifted to the store’s front entrance, leaving the business no better off.

So far, the impact on customers has been minimal: employees arrive early each day to clean the site before the store opens to the public. But that routine has taken a significant toll on staff morale, with workers growing increasingly fed up after months of cleaning up offensive, unsanitary messes that never stop coming.

This is not the first trouble the business has faced with trespassing and vandalism connected to vagrancy in the area. Palamino recalled past incidents including a shattered store window, and an altercation where a person threw drinks at the shop’s glass facade after being told they could not sort through the business’ trash bins. That individual was later arrested on separate charges, and Palamino emphasized she does not believe he is linked to the current waste dumping problem.

When Palamino brought the issue to police, officers told her the department is already stretched thin addressing widespread vagrancy-related concerns across downtown Nassau. The general manager stressed she is not anti-homeless, noting that unhoused people have frequented Bay Street for decades, and most who enter her store are completely non-disruptive. Most homeless visitors interact politely with staff and leave without incident, she said, and she does not take issue with their presence as long as they do not damage or soil her business’ property.

Palamino acknowledged that city officials have carried out notable beautification projects in downtown Nassau in recent months, including adding public murals and renovating derelict, fire-damaged buildings. But she questioned whether local leaders have properly assessed sanitation and public order issues outside of the busy main tourism corridors that draw most visitor attention. For her, the clear solution is more regular police patrols in her corner of the city center — an area she says has been seemingly forgotten by local authorities.

A wave of brutal, unprovoked gun violence shattered three families across The Bahamas over the 2024 Labour Day weekend, leaving grieving relatives searching for answers and justice after three men were killed in separate shooting incidents in New Providence and Grand Bahama.

The first fatal attack unfolded shortly before 9 p.m. Friday in Grand Bahama’s Hunters neighborhood, near a local commercial establishment. Stafford Ferguson, a 44-year-old body repairman, father of four and resident of Freeport’s Caravel Beach community, was shot multiple times as he walked toward his parked 2009 burgundy Chevrolet Impala. He was rushed to a local hospital by emergency responders, but succumbed to his injuries at 11:35 p.m. that same night.

According to police accounts of the shooting, a lone attacker dressed in all dark clothing approached Ferguson unexpectedly, opened fire, then fled on foot to a waiting getaway vehicle driven by an accomplice. Investigators have since taken two 34-year-old men into custody for questioning as they build their case, and the Ferguson family says they are satisfied with the progress law enforcement has made so far, despite being flooded with unconfirmed rumors about the killing.

For the Ferguson family, the loss has been devastating. Khambrel Ferguson, Stafford’s brother, described his sibling as a gentle, hardworking peacemaker who dedicated his life to supporting his four children — two sons and two daughters between the ages of 4 and 21 — and often stepped in to de-escalate conflicts rather than encourage violence. “Stafford was a nice person. He was helpful to people. He was a humble person and never used to bother anyone. To see this situation happen is just shocking because somebody murdered him,” Khambrel told reporters. “We just looking for justice.” He added that the family’s matriarch has been completely overwhelmed by grief following the sudden death of her son, who was also the child of prominent local businessman Max Quant of Noula Investment Ltd.

Ferguson’s killing was only the start of the deadly weekend of violence. Hours later, shortly before 11 p.m. Friday, a second fatal shooting was reported in New Providence’s Eneas Street neighborhood, off Meadow Street. ShotSpotter gunfire detection technology first alerted police to shots fired in the area, and moments later, an anonymous caller reported that an injured man lay unresponsive on the roadway.

Responding officers from the Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Southern Division found the 23-year-old victim, dressed in a white t-shirt and blue jeans, lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds. Emergency medical teams confirmed he was dead at the scene. One person has been taken into custody in connection with the attack, though the investigation remains ongoing.

Preliminary investigative details show the victim had recently returned to New Providence after taking construction jobs on several of the country’s outlying Family Islands, including projects on Paradise Island, to support his two-year-old daughter. Just minutes before the attack, he had dropped his toddler off with her mother. Friends and family say the killing has come as a crippling blow, coming just one year after the family lost the victim’s grandmother.

In a viral public social media post, the victim’s sister pushed back hard against online speculation that her brother was involved in gang activity or street violence, painting a portrait of a quiet, dedicated young father focused on providing for his little girl. “Our grandmother passed last July, and our sister and I did our best to make sure he did not fall victim to the streets and gangs. They took his life carelessly. He had his baby in his arms when he was shot. He begged for his life. They could have stopped at one when he fell and it jammed,” she wrote. “Instead, they continued to unjam and load on my baby brother. He was working on the cay and just came a couple of days prior to visit family, see his girl and his baby. God protected my niece. She is a toddler. How can you kill so senselessly. My God do people not have a heart anymore? Again, my brother was not a thug or a gangster and was NOT a part of any gang or the streets, that’s why it hurts so much. He was killed out of envy.”

The victim’s godmother also took to Facebook Live to deliver an hour-long public appeal, begging anyone with information about the attack to come forward, even if that means turning in a family member. “You feel it harder because he was doing something,” she said. “He has a baby. You feel it harder because he is somebody’s child. His mother might be deceased, but he still has his older sister. He has his sisters, he has a brother, he has auntie, has uncle, and he have a crazy godmother.”

The third and final fatal shooting of the weekend took place around 1:45 p.m. Sunday on Constitution Drive in New Providence. Police responding to reports of gunfire found a man in his early 30s dead from gunshot wounds at the scene, and two other adult men wounded in their lower legs. According to police, the three victims were gathered at an informal makeshift garage adjacent to their homes when two armed assailants approached the property gate carrying high-powered firearms, opened fire, and fled the area. No suspects have been publicly identified or taken into custody in this shooting as of the latest updates.

Across both islands, the string of unprovoked, deadly attacks has left three families torn apart, all calling for accountability and answers for the senseless violence that cut short the lives of their loved ones.

Labour Day in the Bahamas brought deep divisions among organized labour on Friday, as two competing marches were held across New Providence. The split stems from ongoing friction over whether the annual workers’ celebration has been co-opted by partisan political interests, with conflicting visions for the holiday’s original purpose at the center of the disagreement.

The long-standing traditional parade gathered participants at Windsor Park before proceeding along East Street into downtown Nassau. Thousands of union members, community supporters, and live musical acts joined the procession, alongside clear, large contingents of supporters from the nation’s two major political parties: the ruling Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), wearing their signature yellow, and the opposition Free National Movement (FNM) in their identifying red.

Parallel to this main event, the Bahamas Trades Union Congress (TUC) and a coalition of its affiliated unions hosted a separate demonstration. Starting from the House of Labour on Wulff Road, the alternative march traveled west before turning north along Baillou Hill Road, concluding at the Southern Recreation Grounds. This marked the second consecutive year the TUC has opted out of the traditional parade route, a decision organizers framed as a deliberate act to preserve the legacy of labour pioneer Sir Randol Fawkes and protect Labour Day’s core historical meaning.

TUC president Obie Ferguson, KC, has long argued that the growing visibility of political party presence has pulled focus away from the holiday’s original mission of honoring workers. Ahead of this year’s event, he instructed all TUC march participants to wear plain black trousers and official white Labour Day shirts, rather than any identifying partisan apparel.

Criticism of partisan displays was echoed by outgoing Bahamas Public Services Union (BPSU) president Kimsley Ferguson, who noted this year’s event marked his final Labour Day parade as union leader before stepping down. “Labour Day is supposed to be for the workers of the country and not a show of political might or strength,” he said. “There’s no problem with political parties coming on to the parade, but come and support the workers, wear neutral colors, don’t bring party colors to a parade that’s supposed to be celebrating the workers of the country.”

After nine years leading the BPSU, Ferguson will step down from his post when the union holds leadership elections in September. He announced he is leaving union leadership to pursue full-time Christian ministry, a calling he said he has already begun to answer part-time. “It’s a new chapter that I’m going to embrace, because God has now called me to go into ministry full time,” he explained. “I’m currently a pastor at a church, and so this is my last and final Labour Day parade as the President of Bahamas Public Service Union.”

Speaking to the broader split within the national labour movement, Ferguson added: “I would say that the word union suggests one. If there’s a day and a time that we ought to unite, it would be today.”

Not all stakeholders agree that the event has become overly politicized, however. Bahamas Labour Minister Pia Glover-Rolle pushed back against claims of partisan takeover, noting that intentional parade organizing keeps trade unions at the front of the procession while political parties are held to the rear. “The parade, in my opinion, has not been politicised, because if you look at the way the route is composed, you’ll see the unions out front, and then I see the political parties in the rear, they’re not mixing in, they’re only at the back supporting, and that’s what it’s about,” she said. “Political parties are supporting the workers, and the supporters of political parties are workers themselves, so I don’t think it’s politicised in any way.”

Glover-Rolle added that the separation of unions and political groups in the parade order is intentional every year, and there is nothing inappropriate about partisan organizations showing public support for the nation’s workforce. “There’s a clear separation of the political parties and the trade unions. Every year it’s intentional that the political bodies stay closer to the rear and unions make their way through the parade, but it is a show of support. I don’t see anything wrong with political parties supporting the workers of our country.”

Darron Woods, president of the Bahamas Hotel Catering and Allied Workers Union, echoed this more relaxed stance, saying his organization was not thrown off by the surrounding political debate. “That has become a tradition now, so it really doesn’t faze us anymore,” he noted.

Opposition Leader Michael Pintard defended the FNM’s decision to wear official party colours this year, explaining that the party had previously complied with requests from the Fawkes family to avoid partisan apparel. He argued the ruling PLP broke a long-standing agreement to stay away from partisan displays, leaving the FNM with little choice but to assert their presence. “On multiple Labour Days, we have not worn party colors. We again complied with what was requested by Randol Fawkes family. This year, it’s clear to us that the PLP has violated that agreement,” he said Friday. “It has been of no effect, and so we want to stand to let the public know we are still here. We didn’t want to just melt in the crowd to let them know we’re still here and still standing.”

Before the traditional parade continued into downtown, participants paused for a solemn memorial at Zion Baptist Church, located near the site of a 2018 Labour Day tragedy that claimed the lives of four women: Dianne Gray-Ferguson, Tami Williams-Gibson, Kathleen Rodgers-Fernander and Tabitha Bethel-Haye, who were killed when a parade truck struck the group. Wreaths were laid and prayers were offered before the procession resumed.

Speaking at the memorial service, Prime Minister Philip “Brave” Davis reflected on the meaning of Labour Day, framing it as a permanent recognition of workers’ dignity, collective sacrifice, and shared solidarity. “We must remember that they were participating in what I call a seminal event, where workers come together to mark their solidarity for the dignity of work and to ensure that the rights of workers are continually upheld,” he said.

Davis also recounted the long history of labour struggle that led to the creation of the national holiday, noting that Bahamian workers fought for decades for formal recognition, from the 1948 labour riots to the 1956 national strike that ultimately led to the establishment of the annual Labour Day celebration. “Without workers, you have no economy,” he emphasized. “And let’s continue to respect them, uphold their dignity, and ensure their rights are always protected.”