The Tribune

By TANYA SMITH-CARTWRIGHT

tsmith-cartwright@tribunemedia.net

MINISTER of Immigration and Financial Services Elsworth Johnson has commended officers of the Immigration Department and the Royal Bahamas Police Force for swift and hard work in capturing a migrant who escaped from the country’s Detention Centre.

Last Friday at around 7.38am, officers at the detention facility reported that “upon routine population” count, they discovered that a male Haitian national had escaped custody. An all-points-bulletin was put out for his capture.

Police and immigration officials apprehended the migrant around 11pm on Wednesday.

Officers, acting on information and armed with a search warrant, entered a home previously occupied by escaped migrant Jack “Jacklyn” Gerlin at Pinewood Drive in New Providence.

Mr Gerlin and several others were taken into custody without incident, a release from the Department of Immigration noted.

“I would like to commend the director of immigration and his team and the commissioner of police and his team for assisting and in particular members of the community who were crucially important in resolving this matter,” Mr Johnson said yesterday.

Just after his capture, an image of a barebacked Mr Gerlin made rounds on social media. In the image, he was surrounded by immigration officers, one of them with his hand around his neck.

Mr Johnson did not comment specifically on the image, but said: “The entire episode involving Mr Gerlin is now under investigation inclusive of how he made good his escape and in particular the persons who assisted him and harboured him in this process. We expect that there may be some more arrests surrounding his escape.”