News
Fix the Blind Spot, says Christian Council President as Illegal Migrants make landfall
By Deandrea Hamilton
Editor
#TurksandCaicos, September 11, 2023 – The president of the Turks and Caicos Christian Council has now called on country leaders to “fix” the blind spot in the country’s border security system in order to thwart illegal invasions of unchecked migrants.
“We need to act quickly. Right now our borders are wide open, we only have serious criminal activity happening in Turks and Caicos and nobody is being caught. We have daylight assassinations… in Grace Bay and some of these criminals who are showing up we don’t know what they are a part of,” explained the former US military officer.
Wilbert Jennings, Christian Council President and Presidential Security company owner, is very concerned, as are other residents. The church leader has now joined the chorus of people expressing dismay at the inundation of an unknown number of Haitians into the country in recent days and the response of government to the dangers illegal landings create.
A day after the comments, the Royal TCI Police informed that there were at the very least, 200 irregular migrants who made it to shore in the northwestern end of Providenciales. “At approximately 10:10 pm on Tuesday, 29th August 2022, the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Maritime Operations personnel onboard one of its maritime vessels contacted the 911 Police Control room and reported that they were in pursuit of what appeared to be a large wooden illegal vessel (sloop) carrying an estimated 200 people, making its way to the general area of North West Point, Providenciales,” explained a police report, which also admits very few of those smuggled into the country were captured.
The northwestern area is a notorious blind spot, the radar station which is located in the south, is less able to detect
“It’s high time for us to fix it. Apparently, the system is not working and we don’t know who is in our country. It’s clear something is not right. They made it to shore, what happened to the radar system? They didn’t get detected, something is wrong,” said Jennings.
Jennings has registered the perspective of the Christian Council, making it clear that the current stream of illegal migrants into the country is unacceptable and called for the new radar station to be made operational.
“All they need to do now is make it happen. That’s the question we need to ask, why is it taking so long for it to happen? And money is not an issue in Turks and Caicos. We know the amount of money that was invested in the police department.”
Residents have estimated that hundreds must have gotten in to Provo in those final days of August. Confidence in border protection continues to plunge with the delay in setting up the second radar site and questions about Marine Police capability in the north-west; already that station has been approved but has yet to materialize.
The police, in its August 31, 2023 statement admitted its boat was unable to stop the 200 migrants who escaped ashore for fear of running aground.
“The sloop failed to comply with instructions given by the Police and continued to make its way to shallow waters. The Police vessel was unable to get any closer in such shallow water. The migrant vessel ran aground, and its passengers began jumping into the water and ran to the shore. It is believed the migrants landed somewhere between the Chrystal Bay and Malcolm Bay areas,” informed RTCIPF.
Police this week announced that onboard an illegal migrant vessel was seized some $500k in illicit drugs, namely marijuana.
The discovery fueled public discontent about what is making it into the Turks and Caicos Islands and fueling the unwelcomed rise in violent criminal activity.