The Tribune

By KHRISNA VIRGIL

Deputy Chief Reporter

kvirgil@tribunemedia.net

NEWLY appointed Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield has said the country’s “catch and release” policy in response to the “knotty problem” of Haitian migrants entering the country will need revision and most likely a more strategic plan implemented to mitigate the influx of illegal migrants coming to The Bahamas.

Mr Henfield asserted that the cost to repatriate migrants and the price tag associated with running the Carmichael Road Detention Centre, where they are housed, is a skyrocketing expense that the government needs to get a handle on.

In January, former Foreign Affairs and Immigration Minister Fred Mitchell said Haitian nationals remained the highest number of repatriations with 5,241 of them sent back home for 2016. The figure represents a 65 per cent increase over 2015’s total of 3,183 persons.

Repatriations of Cuban nationals also skyrocketed in 2016, according to statistics from the Department of Immigration, which indicated that total repatriations increased by some 80 per cent over 2015.

Regarding this, Mr Mitchell earlier this year said the department believed that the more than 700 per cent rise in repatriations of Cuban nationals in 2016 was driven by anticipation that the United States’ “wet foot/dry foot” policy was coming to an end.

The Department of Immigration repatriated 1,287 Cuban nationals in 2016, a stark increase over the 153 persons repatriated in 2015.

“That is a knotty problem that is going to take some thinking to address,” Mr Henfield said in response to a question from The Tribune on his position when it comes to Haitian nationals entering the country illegally.

He spoke to The Tribune on the sidelines of the reception that followed the swearing in of 15 Cabinet ministers on Monday.

“I have actually done a thesis on this and I think we have to do some more things to mitigate it.

“I think the catch and release policies that we have been pursuing for the past 50 years are clearly not working and so I am reminded of the 1980s when we had a drug problem. The Americans established with us a comprehensive maritime agreement, which permitted Coast Guard vessels to enter Bahamian waters with the (Royal Bahamas) Defence Force person on board and to actually intercept and board vessels.

“I think we need to start looking at more strategic policies like that with the Haitian government in order to mitigate the influx of Haitians every year. The cost of repatriation is continuing to skyrocket and the cost of the detention centre is skyrocketing. So we need to sit down and put on our thinking caps and solve this problem.”

Regarding the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr Henfield said an assessment is needed in his ministry to determine where it is now and where it needs to go. However, he listed several things that may need attention once work starts.

“I know we have to finish some delimitation talks with the Americans because we need to settle our boundaries. We started those talks several years ago, but I don’t know where it is now. I know we need to talk to the United Kingdom about our borders with the Turks and Caicos Islands and I know we need to talk to the Haitian government about their borders. So we are going to actually settle The Bahamas’ borders. There is a lot of work we need to do.

“We need to continue working with the Americans to mitigate human trafficking which you know is alive and well. We need to continue to work with OPBAT to reduce drug influence in The Bahamas.

“We need to reduce weapons coming in. There are too many lives being lost in this country as a result of weapons that are being smuggled in,” the minister said.