The Governor Reports:  What the UK is giving to bolster National Security

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

Governor and Co-chair of the National Security Council Nigel Dakin announced a staggering list of reforms for border protection in his press conference held on December 9.

The reforms included provisions for land air and sea as well as mentions of a three-way alliance with the Bahamas and the United States. Geographically, the United Kingdom is quite distant, but their presence has long reach, the British is head of foreign affairs and national security for the overseas territory through the governor, Nigel Dakin.

The Governor announced several big-ticket items both in terms of personnel, equipment and intelligence that would be handled by the UK over the duration of the advanced deal.

The first thing that Dakin reflected upon was that the Turks and Caicos Regiment Officers would be flown out to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England to be trained. After which a British Army training team would travel to the Turks and Caicos to train further recruits. He also revealed that the Turks and Caicos now had permanent on-island support from the British Army.

He said, “We have permanent on-island support from one, if not to my mind the best line Regiment the British Army has – ‘The Riles’ – and as an OT we are unique in securing this type of day-to-day support.”

Dakin also mentioned that the Turks and Caicos would benefit from technology and equipment. He said that a team was in the UK at that very moment assessing their digitized airport security features and he expressed hope in this particular avenue of research, saying. “If we get this right, and I believe UK Border Force and Home Office will support us, in 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.”

That was not all, in an effort to increase the country’s surveillance power, the Governor said he and the Premier had been in talks with the UK and the Turks and Caicos would receive a powerful tool.

He told the press “The UK Minister committed to supporting us with a long-term maritime surveillance asset. While not yet confirmed I expect that to be a fixed-wing specialist aircraft with long-term persistence, able to observe for hours.”

A new partnership was in the works for access to satellite imagery for surveillance of Turks and Caicos waters which will help Dakin says in curbing illegal fishing as well as ‘people smuggling’.

The employment of drones was also information conveyed by the governor at the live news conference, which ws carried on Facebook.

He maintained though that outside of the UK’s help Turks and Caicos would have a sophisticated intelligence collection operation of its own which would provide the sort of information needed to take down illegal networks.