The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

THE Immigration Department hopes to repatriate nearly 400 irregular migrants being housed in Inagua as early as Friday, its assistant director said yesterday.

Rudolph Ferguson told reporters yesterday there are presently 395 irregular migrants in custody on the island.

Two of them are Cuban and the remaining are said to be Haitian. The Haitians were spotted in a vessel in waters near Cay Sal on Saturday and taken to Inagua for processing.

The government has established a temporary holding facility, able to hold some 800 migrants, on the island to allow for quicker repatriation exercises.

“The plan is to repatriate them from Inagua and we want them repatriated as quickly as possible,” Mr Ferguson said.

“You must appreciate the fact that we must go through Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ultimately the Haitian authorities. Once that has been completed, they will be out of here.”

When asked if repatriation exercises will begin this month, he replied: “How about this week? We are working very, very hard on making this happen.”

He also said 12 immigration officers were sent to the island to “beef up” security there.

“We would’ve sent a detachment of some 12 immigration officers to join the complement of officers that are presently stationed there,” he added.

“We have eight immigration officers there so in conjunction with our partners, the Royal Bahamas Defence Force and the Royal Bahamas Police Force presently, we have adequate security personnel on the ground, and no doubt about it, we’ll be rotating if this matter persists, rotating immigration officers in and out of that area.”

With respect to the treatment of migrants, Mr Ferguson insisted that all are being treated humanely and with dignity.

“As I indicated initially, we affirm the humanity of every human being. It is their right to be treated with dignity and respect and we expect no less from our officials on the ground,” he added.

Last year, the government repatriated over 4,000 migrants, which was said to be the highest number of repatriations in the country’s history.

Most of the people repatriated were Haitian.

Their illegal travel to The Bahamas comes as civil unrest and political turmoil continues to mount in Haiti.

There have been many reports of brutal killings, kidnapping and gang related violence in the Caribbean country.

United Nations Secretary General António Gutierrez on Monday called on governments to consider halting deportations as the situation there spirals out of control.

However, local authorities have given no indication that they plan to stop repatriations, with Immigration Minister Keith Bell last week warning anyone living in the country to leave immediately or face deportation.

“There is definitely no concern about manpower shortage,” Mr Ferguson added.

“The full weight of The Bahamas government will be brought to bear in this instance.”

He also said that no citizen or non-Bahamian should allow themselves to be questioned and detained by someone unless that person is a law enforcement officer.

This comes after a video of political hopeful Lincoln Bain was circulated this week, showing him and others questioning a Haitian man about his status in the country and looking over his documents.

“We want the general public to understand that the Immigration Department (and) indeed immigration officers have the sole authority to interview and invite persons to be interviewed for any breaches we believe may occur,” Mr Ferguson continued.

“Immigration officials are the keepers of our borders so any other person that is out there, doing anything that is untoward we say to the general public right now to refer all those matters to the Immigration Department.”