News
Repatriations by TCIG bust their budget, Cabinet asked for more money
#TurksandCaicos, January 18, 2018 – Providenciales – A near $1 million dollar bill has been racked up to pay for the costs linked to the repatriation of illegal migrants into the Turks and Caicos Islands for the year 2017, the expenditure surging past the budgeted amount says the Ministry of Border Control and Employment.
“Up to the month of December, the appropriation of some US$770,000.00 for repatriation for the year 2017-2018 had been exhausted.”
On Wednesday January 10, 2018 the Cabinet heard a plea for more money, $220,000 more in order to pay off bills linked to repatriation. There are just under four more months left in the current fiscal year.
Magnetic Media was informed that, Repatriation expenditure is not only a chartered flight or airline ticket home, it includes ground transportation, security at the Detention Center, utilities associated with the Detention Center operations and meals; the list of humanitarian courtesies also sound a lot like a fully-funded vacation to the island.
It was revealed to #MagneticMedia by the Ministry that 1,400 people were repatriated in 2017, the majority of whom were Haitians.