Bahamas News
Governor Announces New Defence Plan; Do Not Underestimate TCI
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, December 11, 2021 – “We’re moving from the defense to the offense. We want to find the people responsible for this trade and we want them in our prisons serving long sentences.”
Less than two weeks after the latest, deadly migrant mishap Governor Nigel Dakin has rolled out a brand new border defense plan for the Turks and Caicos Islands in concert with the Bahamas and the United States.
The plan sees major upgrades for personnel and equipment across the TCI and new partnerships to seal the deal.
Governor Dakin laid out four things he said the Turks and Caicos had to do in order to effectively man their borders.
These were: Creating circles of defense that would allow the alliance to intercept vessels before they touched shore; to have surveillance good enough to detect and stop before they reached TCI waters; to take down the networks that facilitate the activities and finally to decrease what he called ‘Pull factors’ that make the TCI seem so attractive to irregular migrants.
“I and the NSC have to live in the real world, not the world we would wish it to be, and we have to be realistic that the push factors out of Haiti are not going to reduce any time soon. The trend is the opposite way. We in TCI have to be in charge of our destiny, not the victim of others. What is entirely within our personal gift is we can reduce the pull factors that bring irregular migrants to our shores,” said the Governor in a Thursday press conference to announce the new tri-lateral strategy, held from the Governor’s Office in Providenciales.
In order to achieve these objectives the Governor announced Plans for Land, Air and Sea, combined with the US, Bahamas agreement it is a threefold partnership in every sense of the word.
In an effort to protect land and sea the Governor announced the consolidation of the Maritime Police and the Radar Operation into a new Maritime base. This base which will start operating on April 1st. will include a Maritime Operations Control Center for the units and will be able to assist officers stationed at sea.
“So as an interim step, the Government has committed to building a new Marine Base and within that there will be a Maritime Operations Control Facility that will fuse all activity working in support of this mission. As part of the journey, a decision was made by the NSC last week that the Radar Operation – that now does so much more than just irregular migration – will move from the Ministry of Immigration to the Maritime Police bringing two first class, but separate units together, to ensure maximum collaboration. That will happen on 1 April.”
But that was not all, the ranks of the Maritime Police force is set to grow to nearly double what it stands at now and benefit from two new boats.
The scope of the radar is set to triple with the help of new equipment.
“As our radar becomes ever more comprehensive, we risk becoming a victim of our own success and we may have many more sightings of suspicious craft. How we best resolve if these are ‘friend or foe’ depends on the increase in numbers that the radar see – we don’t necessarily want the Maritime Police having to intercept each one which would be inefficient. So the NSC has not ruled out investing in fixed wing drone technology to complement our radar activity if that becomes necessary, and the NSC has received some preparatory briefing on this.”
The TCI Regiment is also set to increase in number and will be operating on land and sea by 2023. The TCI regiment will be trained by British Military officers and are set to have actual barracks soon.
“As promised the Regiment has been formed and was stood up during the pandemic. It has a presence in both Grand Turk and Providenciales. It’s already operational and gaining plaudits for its support to counter-migration work from the Minister of Immigration. It’s staffed by brilliant committed people, regular and reserve alike, and it will grow year-on-year over the next two years to be around 100 Marines. Given how new it is, it’s already operating well beyond our early expectations, but by 2023 it will be operating on land and sea to a very high standard indeed.”
Finally a new ‘Ship Rider’ agreement will allow for TCI officers to ride on Bahamian vessels stationed in the water between the Turks and Caicos and Haiti
The end goal of the drastic improvement of seafaring and land based forces is for the TCI to have their very own Coast Guard which the Governor says makes sense if the island is to be successful at managing the crisis.
In relation to the airports Dakin said, “Those entering our country illegally, or overstaying, come as much by air as by sea. The first step will be to combine the enforcement arms of Customs and Immigration to form a Border Force. That decision has now been taken. As I speak a top team from our Immigration Ministry is in UK looking at their digitised airport security features including pre-registration and e-gates. If we get this right, and I believe UK Border Force and Home Office will support us, in what is intelligence led border protection, those we know will do us ‘no harm’ – such as locals returning home and those arriving from our main markets – should have a seamless arrival and departure at our ports while our Border Force officers focus properly on those who bring the greatest risk.”
It is with this in mind that Dakin said an official Border Force would comprise the enforcement arms of Customs and Immigration.
He said if the TCI could get the intelligence based type of border control right, then citizens, tourists and returning residents would not be affected. This means that people who he stays ‘pose a great risk’ would be caught in a technological bottleneck. To assist the Border Force from above, a ‘top team’ has been appointed. This team consists of the minister of immigration and deputy secretaries who have experience in policing and customer service to make the new processesas smooth and effective as they can be.
He described the changes to come as once in a generation.
He made specific mention of the boat runners who facilitate the illegal trade of migrants saying that these people under proposed legislation will see a minimum term of seven years in prison and an unlimited fine.
“If the situation is getting worse another reason our allies came is because they now know we are serious because we have shown that seriousness. I said two years ago – when I first travelled to Miami and Nassau – that our allies should not underestimate my ambition, and they should not underestimate TCI’s ambition, and that was because it was hard for us in TCI – to overstate the threat illegal migration was to us.”
Dakin said All of these proposed changes would make the TCI far less attractive to the people who facilitate ‘people smuggling’ on all levels and should make the Turks and Caicos safer for its citizens.
PM: Project delivers on promise and invests in youth, sports and national development
GRAND BAHAMA, The Bahamas — Calling it the fulfillment of a major commitment to the island, Prime Minister Philip Davis led the official groundbreaking for the Grand Bahama Aquatic Centre, a facility the government says will transform sports development and create new opportunities for young athletes.
Speaking at the Grand Bahama Sports Complex on February 12, the Prime Minister said the project represents more than bricks and mortar
— it is an investment in people, national pride and long-term economic activity. The planned complex will feature a modern 50-metre competition pool, designed to meet international standards for training and regional and global swim meets. Davis said the facility will give Bahamian swimmers a home capable of producing world-class performance while also providing a space for community recreation, learn-to-swim programmes and water safety training.
He noted that Grand Bahama has long produced outstanding athletes despite limited infrastructure and said the new centre is intended to correct that imbalance, positioning the island as a hub for aquatic sports and sports tourism.
The Prime Minister also linked the development to the broader national recovery and revitalisation of Grand Bahama, describing the project as part of a strategy to expand opportunities for young people, create jobs during construction and stimulate activity for small businesses once operational.
The Aquatic Centre, he said, stands as proof that promises made to Grand Bahama are being delivered.
The project is expected to support athlete development, attract competitions, and provide a safe, modern environment for residents to access swimming and water-based programmes for generations to come.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
The Bahamas, February 15, 2026 – For the better part of three years, Bahamians have been told that major Afreximbank financing would help transform access to capital, rebuild infrastructure and unlock economic growth across the islands. The headline figures are large. The signing ceremonies are high profile. The language is ambitious. What remains far harder to see is the measurable impact in the daily lives of the people those announcements are meant to serve.
The Government’s push to secure up to $100 million from Afreximbank for roughly 200 miles of Family Island roads dates back to 2025. In
its February 11 disclosure, the bank outlined a receivables-discounting facility — a structure that allows a contractor to be paid early once work is completed, certified and invoiced, with the Government settling the bill later. It is not cash placed into the economy upfront. It does not, by itself, build a single mile of road. Every dollar depends on work first being delivered and approved.
The wider framework has been described as support for “climate-resilient and trade-enhancing infrastructure,” a phrase that, in practical terms, should mean projects that lower the cost of doing business, move people and goods faster, and keep the economy functioning. But for communities, that promise becomes real only when the projects are named, the standards are defined and a clear timeline is given for when work will begin — and when it will be finished.
Bahamians have seen this moment before.
In 2023, a $30 million Afreximbank facility for the Bahamas Development Bank was hailed as a breakthrough that would expand access to financing for local enterprise. It worked in one immediate and measurable way: it encouraged businesses to apply. Established, revenue-generating Bahamian companies responded to the call, prepared plans, and entered a process they believed had been capitalised to support growth. The unanswered question is how much of that capital has reached the private sector in a form that allowed those businesses to expand, hire and generate new economic activity.
Because development is not measured in the size of announcements.
It is measured in loans disbursed, projects completed and businesses expanded.
The pattern is becoming difficult to ignore. In June 2024, when Afreximbank held its inaugural Caribbean Annual Meetings in Nassau,
Grand Bahama was presented as the future home of an Afro-Caribbean marketplace said to carry tens of millions of dollars in investment. What was confirmed at that stage was a $1.86 million project-preparation facility — funding for studies and planning to make the development bankable, not construction financing. The larger build-out remains dependent on additional approvals, land acquisition and further capital.
This distinction — between financing announced and financing that produces visible, measurable outcomes — is now at the centre of the national conversation.
Because while the numbers grow larger on paper, entrepreneurs still describe access to capital as out of reach, and communities across the Family Islands are still waiting to see where the work will start.
And in an economy where stalled growth translates into lost opportunity, rising frustration and real social consequences, the gap between promise and delivery is no longer a communications issue.
It is an inability to convert announcements into outcomes.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
A hardline strategy that reduced murders, gunfire, and collateral deaths
The Bahamas, February 8, 2026 – What happens when police stop routinely granting bail to high-risk suspects and aggressively execute outstanding warrants? In The Bahamas, the answer in 2025 was fewer murders, fewer gunshots, and safer communities.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested 4,337 individuals on outstanding warrants last year, ensuring suspects were brought directly before the courts instead of being released back onto the streets. At the same time, police significantly curtailed the use of police bail for high-risk and repeat offenders, particularly those already entangled in violent disputes.
Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the shift was informed by hard lessons from previous years. Intelligence reviews showed that
many homicide victims were not random targets, but men already wanted by law enforcement and — critically — by other criminals. When released on bail, those individuals often became targets themselves, triggering retaliatory shootings that spilled into neighbourhoods, roadways and public spaces.
By keeping high-risk suspects in custody pending court appearances, police say they disrupted that cycle — removing both potential offenders and potential victims from the streets.
The impact was stark. Murders declined by 31 percent in 2025, falling from 120 in 2024 to 83, the largest percentage decrease in homicides since national tracking began in 1963 and the lowest murder count in nearly two decades.
Police leaders say the strategy also reduced the collateral damage that had increasingly alarmed communities. Innocent residents had been caught in “sprays of gunfire” as targeted attacks unfolded in residential areas, at traffic stops, and in public settings.
Gun-violence indicators reflected the change. Gunshot reports fell by 35 percent, while incidents detected by ShotSpotter technology declined by 29 percent, confirming that fewer shots were being fired across the country.
“Gunshots ringing out and cutting through our peaceful paradise were down remarkably,” Commissioner Knowles said, attributing the improvement to decisive enforcement, tighter bail practices, and sustained pressure on offenders.
Police also intensified enforcement against breach of bail conditions, charging and detaining more suspects than in any previous reporting period. Officers say the approach removed the opportunity for repeat offending while matters were before the courts.
Police leadership said the results go beyond statistics. By limiting bail for high-risk suspects and executing warrants at scale, the strategy saved lives, protected bystanders, and restored confidence in public safety.
In 2025, fewer people were hunted, fewer bullets were fired, and fewer families were left grieving — a shift police say was no accident, but the result of deliberate, hardline choices.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
