A patrol of the Royal Bahamas Defense Force intercepted early this Sunday morning a boat with 190 Haitian migrants off the coast of the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Caribbean Sea. In the middle of an operation with the Turks and Caicos Islands Police, 1 men were captured, including a minor and 49 women.
According to both authorities, they were captured while they were sailing in a wooden boat that was at least 40 feet in size. All crew members were detained and turned over to Turks and Caicos immigration officials for processing and later deportation to their country of origin.
Police officer Trevor Botting told local media that the Northern Caribbean Region is experiencing an increase in the number of boats with migrants trying to illegally access the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas. Only in the first six months of the year, 21 ships have been intercepted with more than 2,600 detained migrants.
The number of vessels and people apprehended over the course of 2023 exceeds all previous year totals and we are only 6 months into 2023. Botting assured that all agencies in the Turks and Caicos Islands remain committed to addressing current threats from illegal immigration.
For its part, the United States Coast Guard reported that in March they detained a group of 30 Haitian migrants, 21 men, nine women and a child under the age of 2 when they tried to illegally enter the island and British colony, Turks and Caicos.
So far in 2023, the Coast Guard intercepts at least twice a week a boat in the Caribbean that moves with irregular migrants. For the authorities, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) the maximum concern in the Caribbean region, the disappearance of people due to shipwrecks caused by failures of the boats, which most of the time are in terrible conditions.
With information from EFE
Keep reading:
- Civil Organizations Announce First Lawsuit Against Ron DeSantis Over Florida Immigration Law SB 1718
- Immigrants demonstrate in the capital of Florida on the eve of the entry into force of the law SB 1718