The Tribune

By RASHAD ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

rrolle@tribunemedia.net

AN estimated 172 illegal immigrants were arrested by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force yesterday morning.

Of them, 170 are believed to be of Haitian descent, with the remaining two believed to be nationals of the Dominican Republic.

The immigrants were found in “a very unsafe, very unstable” 40x50ft vessel specifically designed to smuggle immigrants into the country, according to Royal Bahamas Defence Force Senior Lieutenant, Carlon Bethel.

He told the press that Defence Force officers were engaging in an operation near Rose Island shortly after 7am when they received reports about a Haitian sloop in Bahamian waters. They intercepted the sloop near the western entrance of Nassau Harbour.

He said authorities “know of persons that were lost” during the course of their journey, but could not verify how many people in total left Haiti for the Bahamas. 

Regarding the health status of the surviving immigrants, he said: “They are very weak. Some of them are dehydrated and very fatigued.”

One migrant, John Surlin, 27, said their sloop left Haiti last week Thursday. Their food supply finished two days ago, he said, adding: “All of us are very weak. Life is very hard. Haiti doesn’t offer us anything.”

He said that rather than paying to make the illegal trip, he simply told the boat’s captain: “Give me a chance at life.”

He said he was a translator in Haiti and intended to remain in the Bahamas because his life was unstable and he would often go several months without doing any work.

Lieutenant Bethel said in view of the Defence Force’s “effective closing of Central Bahamas routes,” illegal immigrants have been “using different routes” to enter New Providence. These routes, he said, are “more dangerous” than the old ones. 

Describing tactics that the illegal immigrants use to assimilate within the Bahamian population, he said most of them usually come to the country “well dressed” and have a local accomplice who assists in having them assimilated quickly into the community.