US Coast Guard stops sloops, including one near Turks & Caicos

By Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TurksandCaicos, March 17, 2022 – There was no word on it in the Turks and Caicos but a migrant vessel was intercepted by the US Coast Guard off the coast of the TCI on Sunday.

In a statement the Coast Guard said, “A good Samaritan notified Coast Guard District seven watch-standers on Sunday at about 1:50pm of an overloaded sail freighter approximately 43 miles south of the Turks and Caicos Islands.”

The migrants were removed from their vessel due to ‘safety of life at sea’ concerns.  Last Thursday another migrant boat was intercepted off the coast of Cuba.  Together both vessels were carrying 84 migrants.

The migrants were all repatriated to their country of origin, Haiti, on Tuesday.The capture underscores the partnership between the Turks and Caicos, The Bahamas and the U.S. Coast Guard allowing for more communication between the three countries resulting in more offshore of the migrant boats being prevented from ever reaching the shores of the Turks and Caicos

“Anyone attempting to enter the U.S. illegally by sea should expect to be repatriated once interdicted,” said Rear Admiral Brendan McPherson, Coast Guard District Seven Commander.

“The Coast Guard is significantly increasing its patrols of the Windward Pass and the approaches to the southeastern United States to interdict and rescue migrants found aboard grossly overloaded, unseaworthy vessels,”

“These illegal voyages are always dangerous and often deadly.” He said.

There has been no communication within Turks and Caicos about the interception, but the arrest does underscore the value of OpBAT or Operation Bahamas and Turks and Caicos, which has for 42 years been established between the Bahamas the United States and the Turks and Caicos.

Rear Admiral McPherson was in the Turks and Caicos in December 2021 and signed the memorandum of understanding further increasing partnership between the three countries on behalf of the United States.