NASSAU, BAHAMAS Cabinet is expected to review several updated reports on the shantytown situation in The Bahamas to develop a strategy to deal with those unregulated communities and the human element of displacement of those residents, Minister of Works and Utilities Alfred Sears said yesterday.

No one has an unfettered right to establish unregulated communities on public land ALFRED SEARS

Sears said the government is reviewing the issue of squatters on Crown Land.

He said he expects Town Planning and the Building Control Unit in the Ministry of Works to provide a full report with recommendations and options.

The minister said he will present a strategy to Cabinet upon receipt of those reports.

According to Sears, there has been ongoing construction of illegal structures on Abaco and Grand Bahama post-Dorian, as pointed out under the former administration.

He said while he had not received reports to that effect, my eyes are open.

I was in Abaco three weeks ago for the commissioning of the Little Abaco Bridge and as I driving from the airport, I was told that there are certain communities, which subsequent to Hurricane Dorian, have been established, Sears said.

Upon returning to Nassau, asked Town Planning and also Building Control to investigate reports that I had received. I expect those reports would be forthcoming, with recommendations. And in the context of that report, it would have to address the history that is what the previous government would have done. We will review that and see how we can address [that].

The challenge really is, as I have observed, we have a human situation in Abaco, he continued.

We have thousands of people, who were displaced and Bahamian citizens and long-term residents, some of whom are housed in domes and other temporary facilities which were not intended for any long-term habitation. The minister of housing has already broken ground for a new subdivision on Abaco to address this human situation of displacement.

Many persons have been made refugees. Those who had relatives in the US and Nassau and son on have temporarily relocated and are coming back now to Abaco.

Sears pointed out that a similar situation exists in Grand Bahama.

He said housing has to be addressed in a comprehensive way to provide stability as well as habitable places where people can put their lives back together.

Asked if the government will seek to continue to demolish unregulated communities, Sears said upon receipt of the report and recommendations, Cabinet will form a comprehensive position, and then act.

The minister made clear that no one has an unfettered right to establish unregulated communities on public land.

It remains unclear when that report will be prepared.

As the Minnis administration began demolishing structures in certain parts of Abaco, theSupreme Court extended its injunction to the entirety of Abaco,preventing the government from destroying shantytown communities without bringing evidence of a breach of the law to the court first.

The substantive judicial review of the shantytown matter is still under review by the court.

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MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE: Sears says no one has unfettered right to build illegally on public land - EyeWitness News