The Tribune

LOCAL community members joined the police, the Defence Force and the US Coast Guard in apprehending 243 suspected illegal immigrants in the Southern Bahamas.

At around 4am on Monday off the coast of Great Inagua, a US Coast Guard cutter intercepted a Haitian sloop carrying 131 undocumented people. They will reportedly be repatriated by that vessel.

Then at about 10.30am that day near Spring Point, Acklins, community members under the leadership of local constable Bernard Johnson, detained a second group of immigrants on a vessel.

They were soon aided by the Defence Force’s HMBS Bahamas under the command of Lieutenant Commander Gregory Brown, which was on anti-poaching and anti-migrant patrol in the area.

The 88 Haitians found aboard were taken to Inagua for further processing.

A third group of 24 immigrants was discovered aboard a vessel off the Mira Por Vos Cays west of Acklins by the crew of the HMBS Bahamas. The Haitians, along with the captain and his crew of two, were taken to Inagua.

Defence Force commander Commodore Roderick Bowe thanked the US Coast Guard, the local police and members of the Acklins community for their help in protecting the country’s borders.