News
2023 Illegal Immigration bill could hit $7.9 million for TCI
Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, January 19, 2024 – Around $7.9 million is the bill that the Turks and Caicos could be left holding after a record year of interceptions and repatriations in the country.
On November 7, 2023 police released the official figures for the year, 3,488, another interception on December 28 pushed the number to 3,595.
The country had been paying $2,200 per migrant in repatriation costs in 2023 according to Althea Been, Permanent Secretary for Immigration and Border Services, resulting in the $7.9 million price tag.
By February, Immigration Officials had clocked the increased numbers and in a press conference indicated that 2023 was expected to be record breaking.
“If we continue on this trend, we are looking at an estimated 4,494 persons to be repatriated from an estimated 36
While the number of migrants caught came in lower than that predicted, evidence shows hundreds of others made the journey successfully, sprinting into the Turks and Caicos’ underbrush and under the radar. Residents regularly reported strangers running through their yards, empty boats perched on beaches and hundreds of footprints left behind as evidence that many eluded detection. While questions regarding these landings often went unanswered, one weekend of back to back escapes was too big to go unaddressed by police.
On August 29 the Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force reported that at least 200 people escaped into the country from a sloop that got away from police. By September, police had to rush to Ambergris Cay and South Caicos where two other boats carrying hundreds had arrived. Similar accounts were reported between October 9 and 11 with at least three suspected landings reported by residents.
One of the men who claimed to be on the boat that washed up in South Caicos spoke to Haitian News Agencies, describing how the flood of immigrants was getting into the Turks and Caicos.
“Traffic happens in the North Department around Oboy, Balan, Port de Paix, Bodmê, Labadi, and Cap Haitien, where people make arrangements to get on boats and assist them to get to Provo,” he said according to our translator.
The young man had been repatriated to Haiti along with most of his compatriots who could be found.
During the year and according to officials, a total of 28 boats were stopped from making landfall in the country carrying 2,884 males and 711 females including 28 children.