The Tribune

By Rashad Rolle

SLOOPS landing near the Royal Bahamas Defence Force’s (RBDF) Coral Harbour base is “never acceptable,” National Security Minister Marvin Dames said yesterday as he expressed confidence the RBDF will adjust to deal with the new tactics of illegal immigrants. 

“I am never happy when those out there with every intent to break the law are able to be successful,” he told reporters outside the House of Assembly yesterday.

“Fortunately, during the last sloop landing we were able to respond and to interdict those persons. We understand that this is the everyday challenges of law enforcement. It’s a very dynamic profession. So we not only face this with the trafficking of persons, we also face this with the trafficking of drugs, we face this with the trafficking of firearms. When law enforcement is successful in one area, then the criminals look for other means to be successful because at the end of the day, they don’t care about any other thing except making money. We have to adjust our strategy to close that hole and trust me we will.”

A Haitian sloop from which more than 50 people were apprehended made landfall three miles west of the RBDF’s base Monday, the second time in less than a month such an event has occurred.

This prompted widespread criticism and concern about the RBDF’s surveillance of such areas. 

RBDF Commodore Tellis Bethel said this week people trying to land in the country illegally are changing their tactics and are prompting the defence force to do the same. He said the force is gearing up to implement a drone system and a coastal radar system, among other plans.

Questioned yesterday, Mr Dames said: “This is nothing new. Ships have been coming here for a very long time. As long as there are people who are interested in making money illegally, we will continue to be faced with challenges like that, the illegal smuggling of people, the illegal smuggling of drugs, the illegal smuggling of firearms.

“The commodore would have spoken to the press outlining some of the short-term measures that they are taking to address this change (in tactics) because it’s quite clear now that the smugglers are taking a different route to smuggle persons into the country. Sometime ago it was the eastern and southern shores of New Providence and it’s clear now that there has been some shift to the southwest. The defence force (is) using intelligence to determine exactly the route now that they are taking to get to that end of the island. There are some measures they are taking in the short-term to mitigate against that, some of which the commodore has mentioned.

“In the medium and long-term we are looking at some other initiatives. Before coming into office, our government expressed that we will bring about or cause to be created a multi-agency task force that will work on protecting our coastline all around the island of New Providence. There are some things happening now because we have defence and police force and customs assets but we recognise the need now to break the silos down and to create a unified force to address our coastal areas of New Providence, Grand Bahama and in some cases Family Islands as the intelligence would suggest or indicate.

“We have done some work already on the establishment of the multi-agency task force; and this task force will be focusing on all of the ports and so not only the smuggling of persons but also the trafficking of drugs and firearms which is a major cause of concern.”

After the illegal landing of a sloop on Adelaide Beach last month, Press Secretary Anthony Newbold said Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis was “very disturbed” by the incident. Despite intense immigration sweeps, officials said they did not apprehend any migrant suspected to be on board that boat.

“What happened and the degree is totally unacceptable in 2017,” Mr Newbold said at the time.