Providenciales, TCI, January 26, 2017 – More bodies have reportedly washed ashore, but Police have not given any updates today as yet to confirm the latest since the capsizing of a Haitian sloop on Tuesday morning, January 24. It was expected that the death toll would rise in this human trafficking incident turned deadly, and which has also seen our border compromised yet again as an unknown number of illegal migrants have once again made it to shore.
During that media debrief yesterday, the Deputy Premier, Sean Astwood who is responsible for Border Control said this long standing problem requires a multi-pronged approach for success. “We will be working closely with the Haitian Consulate; we’re also working closely with the Haitian community in this country. There are a number of sectors in this country that we’re all aware of that can help us, and we have to engage them and get them through the education process to understand the negative effects of this. And it’s just while the loss of life is the major issues that we’re dealing with here today and in the future I’m sure that we will have to, the normal negative situation that happens out of human trafficking and situations like these that we have to grapple with and really getting the community involved, it has to be a big part of the solution.”
For years, countries like The Bahamas and Turks and Caicos have struggled with the inundation of illegal migrants by boat from the nation of Haiti. A coastal radar installed on Provo’s southern shore in October 2012 did well for a while, but now it seems there is repeated success for migrants who come in the northwestern side; the Governor talked about how a national security council meeting held today might address the coastal radar as media questioned him about its apparent shortcomings.
“First of all I’m not going to talk about the specifics of radar coverage; it wouldn’t be appropriate or serviceable to the public interest. And in any case, as the Commissioner was pointing out to me before this meeting, it is a multilayered process of vigilance and detection, so you shouldn’t look at one thing in absolute isolation. But of course the general issue of how we protect against this is something we will discuss in the National Security Council.”
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