The Tribune

THE deaths of at least 17 people after a boat capsized in rough seas yesterday is more than a tragedy, it is a crime.

A twin-engine speed boat packed full with between 50 and 60 passengers setting off in the dead of night is the hallmark of a human smuggling operation. These people will have paid large sums of money with the goal of being smuggled into, most likely, Florida.

So where did this night-time smuggling operation set off from? A secluded cove somewhere? Far from it, a docking facility off West Bay Street.

At about 1am on Sunday morning, that will have been just along from the busy Arawak Cay area – and at a time when police are telling us they are clamping down on crime amid the surge of gang murders, how did a crowd of 60 people gather not far from a New Providence hotspot without any kind of attention from police patrols?

New Police Commissioner Clayton Fernander said police continue to be on high alert over human smuggling, but in our high alert state, these people gathered on West Bay Street, were loaded up without interruption on the speed boat and then sped off into the night.

Only a short time later, the boat overturned seven miles off New Providence, near Blackbeard’s Cay. 25 people were rescued, but eight are still missing.

Of the dead, 15 were women, one was a man, and one was just a little girl, around four or five years old.

Two men have been arrested, with Commissioner Fernander saying that the pair were known to officers “for various offences.”

Labour and Immigration Minister Keith Bell said that survivors said they paid between $3,000 and $8,000 for the voyage. That’s between $150,000 and $400,000 for 50 passengers in a single trip. More if the number of passengers was higher.

This is crime at the highest level. This is criminals packing people onto a boat unsuitable for the number of people on board and setting out in poor conditions, leading the unstable boat to overturn and kill those on board. This is human smuggling, but it is inhuman treatment and exploitation of desperate people.

It will also likely be far beyond the resources of just two men. This will be part of a smuggling chain, more than likely, bringing people through The Bahamas and on towards the US.

It is not a new crime. It is a crime that has plagued us for a long time. And it is the brazen way in which the criminals set off from a location where they could easily have been discovered that shows how little fear those involved have for the law.

Brazen is also a word that could be used to describe the killers involved in the country’s latest murder yesterday.

The victim had pulled up at a service station to get gas. As he waited, two gunmen got out of another vehicle, shot him and fled.

Once again, the victim was out on bail for a criminal offence.

Opening fire in broad daylight, at a gas station, where a stray bullet hitting a pump could mean an even greater catastrophe. And the criminals got away.

Again, there is no fear from the criminal element that they will be caught, no fear that they will face a trial and a court and a judge and a jury. Indeed, at the current rate of people being killed while out on bail, it seems far likelier to meet that fate than a judge’s gavel.

Commissioner Fernander has his work cut out for him. He faces this surge in murders, a gang turf war and long-entrenched organised crime. It will be no easy task, but our nation needs to win this battle.