The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

ROYAL Bahamas Defence Force Commodore Raymond King said yesterday that about 429 Haitian migrants are still being detained in Inagua following repatriation exercises held over the weekend.

He said those individuals are expected to be returned to their home country soon.

“While I wish not to pre-empt my colleague, the director of immigration nor the minister of immigration, I’ve been advised that those persons are still being cared for and I think it’s some 429 persons as we speak,” the RBDF commander told reporters at the RBDF’s Coral Harbour Base yesterday. “They’re still being detained and cared for and they had anticipated the magistrate being flown in to Inagua this morning and repatriation to begin as early as today (Friday), but I haven’t’ been updated since this morning.”

His comments come after more than 400 migrants were repatriated to Haiti on Friday. It was previously announced that repatriation exercises on the island would continue throughout the weekend.

However, when asked for an update on the matter, Commodore King said he was informed that the remaining migrants were still being detained on the island.

This was also confirmed by Immigration and Labour Minister Keith Bell, who told reporters that those migrants were expected to be charged in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

“You would recall that the HMBS Lawrence Major was in Inagua with 430 migrants onboard which was comprised of 294 male adults on board, 73 females, 40 boys, 21 girls, one infant boy and one infant girl,” Mr Bell said.

“The chief magistrate and her team are down there and as I’m made to understand, they’ve started the court trials. Once those trials have been completed, we will send a note to Haiti and to their embassy to ensure that repatriation is swift as well.”

More than 1,000 Haitians have been taken into custody by local authorities since September 22.

Their illegal travel to The Bahamas comes as civil unrest and political turmoil continues to mount in Haiti following a devastating earthquake and the assassination of former Haitian President Jovenel Moise in July.

Neighbouring countries such as the US have also seen mass migration from Haiti in recent weeks.

Local government officials have also warned that more Haitian migrants could arrive in the country in the days ahead.

Yesterday, Commodore King maintained that officials are keeping a close eye on the situation and have also beefed-up border patrols to crack down on any illegal migration efforts.

“We maintain our presence as we speak,” he noted. “We have an aircraft that will be deployed to work along with the OPBAT and the United States Coast Guard and we have use of our regional relationships in terms of intelligence that we receive from the Cuban Border control from the Turks and Caicos as well as the United States and OBPAT operations.

“We have our intelligence sources. We are monitoring the movement and we have our vessels strategically positioned. We maintained a layered, strategic approach in addition to the blockade that is off the southern Bahamas. We also maintain a blockade here in the central Bahamas. In the event the southern border is breached, it will be extremely difficult for any vessel to reach New Providence,” Mr King also said.

Last week, several United Nations agencies issued an appeal for countries to refrain from deporting Haitian migrants without properly assessing their needs.

However, responding to their calls yesterday, Mr Bell said it was “virtually impossible” for the government to do so, arguing that keeping migrants in those conditions was simply not sustainable.

He said: “Our position is, we have to look at the number of migrants that came in there. It’s virtually impossible for us to halt repatriation precisely because the longer we kept those persons in those conditions because you know there were two places that we had — two auditoriums — and so we need to once they are processed, we need to get them out of those facilities because then, of course, the longer we keep them there it lent the potential for abuse, etc, so we had to get them back out.”