Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicosIslands, February 14, 2024 – Repatriation and other exportation costs are 66 percent higher for the first three quarters of the 2023/24 financial year (April to December) than they were in the same period of the 2022/33 year.
The Q3 Financial Report tabled in the House of Assembly on Tuesday, February 6 revealed the cost of recurrent expenditure items including Repatriation.
Around $4.08 million was spent to send irregular migrants back home between April and December 2023. The figure does not include the interceptions between January and March 2023, those would have been counted as a part of the previous financial year. Total costs will be revealed in April of 2024 when the current financial year ends. For Q3 alone (October to December) $1.264 million was spent on these costs, $532,000 more than was spent in Q3 of the previous financial year.
The already large figure comes as no surprise to residents who have been dealing with recurring instances of migrants landing on their shores and running through their yards all year.
Conversely, the government drastically underspent the cash budgeted for security expenses with only $579,000 used from $1.4 million for the October to December quarter. It was in line with the trend seen all year as, only $1.6 million of the budgeted $2.9 million was spent between April and December.
Other than salaries, Social Welfare was the highest cost factor for recurrent expenditure with $1.8 spent in Q3 alone and $5.9 million for all three quarters combined.
As for non recurrent expenditure, the SIPT trial and land purchases cost the government the most amount of cash, $1.6 million in Q3 alone and $5 million over all three quarters.
