News
Desperate mother takes RISK; charged HUGE FINE $12,000 for smuggling Child to TCI
Wilkie Arthur
Freelance Court Reporter
Today, the woman is released as she awaits an appeal’s court hearing later this year. Her son, in custody of Immigration Department, may have already been deported despite gut wrenching outcry by the mother who says he has no one in the embattled Republic to take care of him.
This case, stems back to December of last year.
The matter is one of a desperate mother who risked her child’s life and paid for his illegal passage to Providenciales, but was caught. She was fined $12,000 or nine months imprisonment for Assisting an Illegal Entry.
The woman was caught just before Christmas, on December 22nd, 2022; hit with a serious charge for facilitating and making arrangements for him to travel along with an adult male to the Turks and Caicos Islands(TCI), on an illegal Haitian sloop.
The Hon Chief Magistrate (CM) Mr. Jolyon Hatmin was so appalled with the mother as he described the audacity of this mother taking such serious chance through the black seas, wide open dangerous ocean putting her 15-year old son’s life at risk on a deadly voyage that could have resulted in her never seeing or hearing from her child ever again.
VIVIANE FRANCOIS, 42 is a mother of two boys, she explained. The oldest born in Haiti and the youngest born here in the TCI.
On August 22nd, 2023, the factual evidence that was told the CM in court was that the boy’s father was moving to another country out of Haiti and he could not carry the boy with him. He told this to the accused mother who said, she had no choice but to try get him here. She said, through her attorney Jamal Missick, that the father didn’t give her much notice and she spent $1,500.00 and made the necessary arrangements to try get her son to the Turks and Caicos on an illegal Haitian sloop heading to the TCI. The boat made land fall successfully in the Northwest Point/Blue Hills area and the mother and her now husband, a Haitian man and the father of her youngest son travelled from Five Cays to pick up her son after receiving a call from the adult male that they arrived safely.
They collected the son but on their way home was stopped by the authorities, as a result the mother alone was arrested and charged with Assisting Illegal entry. The CM told the mother who had pleaded guilty months before her sentencing, that “on your own admission this country provided a safe haven for you from abuse in Haiti, you are here on a work permit, have lived here for years. You know quite well the economic strain illegal migration have on this country, you still knowingly facilitated in illegal entry into the Turks and Caicos Islands.”
The sentence of this court is a fine of $12,000 to be paid in 21 days or serve nine months at the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (DCR).
The CM explained to Francois that she had five days to appeal his decision if unsatisfied and he recommended deportation after the date of the payment for the fine has expired or the completion of her prison sentence.
Appearing for the office of the DPP in this matter was Ms. Enjaleek Dickenson.
TCIG knew from April that fuel factor could surge almost 80%; Minister says $500 cost-of-living payment was part of Government’s response
PROVIDENCIALES — The Turks and Caicos Government knew months before July’s shocking electricity bills that consumers faced a potentially massive increase in the fuel factor.
Minister of Information Technology and Energy E. Jay Saunders revealed Friday that Pelican Energy warned his Ministry in April that generation fuel costs were projected to rise from $3.09 per gallon in May to $4.79 in June and July.
That translated into a projected fuel factor jump from about 17.5 cents to 31 cents per kilowatt-hour — an increase of almost 80%.
Saunders said he personally advised Cabinet of the projected increase and presented options for cushioning the impact.
He characterised Government’s $500 cost-of-living payment as its “initial response” to rising fuel costs, before a separate fuel-factor subsidy was approved.
Cabinet records show Government agreed on June 24 to provide funding to mitigate the fuel-factor impact, with the relief programme approved July 8.
Eligible residential customers — those averaging less than $1,500 monthly over the previous three bills — are capped at 22 cents per kWh from July through October.
Pelican confirmed Friday that Government’s contribution was already applied to July bills, meaning the bills now triggering widespread public outrage would have been even higher without the subsidy.
Saunders did not disclose the programme’s total cost.
His admission that Government knew since April, however, raises another question amid the backlash: why were consumers not directly warned by Government about the scale of the approaching increase?
NASSAU, Bahamas — More Bahamians are accessing HIV and sexually transmitted infection-related healthcare through National Health Insurance, a trend the NHI Authority says should be viewed positively.
NHIA stressed in an August 6 statement that its 2025 figures measure healthcare utilisation, not newly diagnosed infections. They include beneficiaries screened, treated, monitored or receiving follow-up care, including people diagnosed previously.
“Increased utilisation of these services should be viewed as a positive development,” NHIA said.
The Authority pointed to “greater enrolment and use of NHI, improved access to screening and testing, continued treatment and monitoring of existing conditions, and increased willingness to seek medical care.”
The development comes amid a mixed three-year HIV picture. New diagnoses rose from 130 in 2023 to 156 in 2024, before declining to 142 in 2025.
NHIA said increased utilisation demonstrates that more beneficiaries are accessing needed healthcare and actively managing their health, reinforcing the importance of screening, early diagnosis and continued treatment.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Americas has recorded 47,459 confirmed measles cases and 44 deaths in 2026, the region’s highest case count in 22 years, prompting the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to urge stronger vaccination, surveillance and rapid outbreak response.
As of July 18, cases were already more than triple the 15,011 recorded during all of 2025. Guatemala, Mexico, the United States and Peru
account for 95% of confirmed cases. Guatemala leads with 30,371 cases and 26 deaths, followed by Mexico with 12,255 cases and 17 deaths.
PAHO classifies the regional public health risk as very high, citing active outbreaks, immunity gaps, international travel and populations with inadequate vaccination coverage.
The organization says prevention starts with vaccination. Countries are being urged to achieve and maintain at least 95% coverage with two doses of measles-containing vaccine, particularly protecting children and under-vaccinated communities.
Measles spreads through the air when an infected person breathes, coughs or sneezes. Symptoms can include fever, cough, runny nose, red eyes and a rash.
PAHO is urging health authorities to detect suspected cases early and respond rapidly to stop transmission. Unvaccinated and under-vaccinated people, young children and communities with limited healthcare access face increased risk of severe illness and death.
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