The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

AMID growing social unrest in Haiti following the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moise, local law enforcement officials plan to deploy additional vessels out at sea to prevent “any potential mass migration” of Haitian nationals to the Bahamas.

“The Royal Bahamas Defence has taken the position to strengthen our strategic posture in the southeastern Bahamas,” Royal Bahamas Defence Force Commodore Raymond King told The Tribune yesterday.

“We intend to allocate three 42-meter vessels as well as an enduring friendship vessel which we refer to as our strike boat asset. Also, we have an air asset. One of our aircraft will be deployed to that area to provide intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to support our four vessels in that area.”

Commodore King spoke after Foreign Affairs Minister Darren Henfield revealed on Wednesday that the Bahamas had closed its embassy in Haiti in response to that nation’s deepening crisis, noting it will remain shut until a way forward is determined.

A state of emergency was declared in Haiti on Wednesday hours after its president was shot dead at his home by a group of masked assailants shortly after 1am that day.

His wife Martine Moise was also shot in the attack and is currently in hospital.

Haitian police officials said seven “mercenaries” have been killed and six suspected assailants have since been arrested in connection with the assassination, according to international reports.

There are concerns the situation will see increased illegal migration from that area.

Officials will seek to prevent this through strong policing efforts.

The RBDF also will be assisted by their local and international partners.

“We have partners that we work cooperatively with coordinating patrols and operations,” Commodore King said. “That includes the RBPF’s marine unit. They have an asset in Matthew Town that we work closely with. And we also have very good working relationships with the United States Coast Guard via the embassy here or office of defence corporations who indicated their intent of increasing the number of vessels in the southeastern Bahamas along the windward passage to guard against any potential mass migration from Haiti.”

He said officials will continue to be on guard until the situation in Haiti improves.

“We will sustain our efforts until we see some sense of normalcy or some sense of calmness but we are uncertain in terms of how the Haitian people will react following the president’s assassination and so, we will have a sustained presence but suffice to say that we do and we’ve always had a sustained presence in the Bahamas and in any event, we have always had at least two vessels and three in some cases between the south eastern Bahamas and Great Bahama bank so we’re just augmenting our numbers to ensure that we create an overlapping coverage and particularly with the aircraft of an early warning of any movement of any migrant vessels,” he said.

For his part, National Security Minister Marvin Dames called the recent developments in Haiti “very unfortunate.”

He said the government remains committed to ensuring that the Bahamian people are safe and also the country’s borders are protected.

“We are very much abreast of what’s going on and we’re monitoring if that would have any impact on us here in the Bahamas and we’ll take whatever measures we have to take to ensure that our borders are protected,” Mr Dames told reporters yesterday.

He expressed confidence in the RBDF’s abilities to deal with any potential threats.

Asked if there are any plans to enhance security measures at government buildings in the wake of the assassination, Mr Dames replied: “We have had these discussions before and we have created manuals and documents that speaks to just that.

“If you look at the new Ministry of National Security building for example, you would see that that’s one of the models that we intend to ensure that we take it at every ministry and we have had these discussions at the cabinet level as we prioritise our business.

“That is certainly one of those priorities that we continue to discuss.”