The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE

Tribune Staff Reporter

lrolle@tribunemedia.net

SEARCH and recovery efforts for missing Haitian passengers from Sunday’s boating incident continued yesterday with negative findings, according to the Royal Bahamas Defence Force - as a third person was arrested over the tragedy.

In an interview with The Tribune yesterday, a RBDF spokesperson said rescue teams will continue to comb the area near Blackbeard’s Cay – where the vessel capsized- and surrounding areas in an effort to locate survivors or the remains of missing passengers.

“The search has advanced to search and recovery mode,” a RBDF spokesperson said.

Police initially said some 50 to 60 people were travelling on a twin engine vessel that was en route to Miami, Florida from New Providence when it overturned in rough seas around 1am Sunday.

However, a RBDF commander told reporters yesterday afternoon that officials now believe some 45 people were on the vessel.

The boating tragedy left 17 Haitians, including a young girl, dead, while several people are believed to be still missing.

Twenty-five people, including two Bahamian men, have since been rescued following the accident.

Police said yesterday they arrested another Bahamian man for alleged involvement in the matter.

This means three Bahamian men have been taken into custody so far in connection with the smuggling operation, including the two locals who were rescued out at sea.

“Preliminary information confirms that officers from the Criminal Investigations Department acting on intelligence, arrested the male at a residence in central New Providence shortly after 9pm on Sunday July 24, 2022 without incident,” the report said.

Yesterday, Minister of National Security Wayne Munroe said if investigations find that the men were operators of the vessel, he expects them to be charged with several human smuggling offenses and possibly a “homicide offence” as a result of negligence.

He also noted passengers could also be hauled before the courts should officers discover that they arrived in the country “illegally.”

“I would have every expectation that if it is found that the two persons recovered are the captains of this vessel that they would be charged with the appropriate human smuggling offenses and to my mind, we also have to consider a homicide charge as well because it’s one thing to smuggle people and you can smuggle people safely or unsafely,” Mr Munroe told reporters yesterday.

“So for instance, I can take a 40ft boat and smuggle two people to the US and that’s illegal and that’s human smuggling or you can have an event like this, an overcrowded boat, no flotation device. That is actually dangerous.

“And so, the first example of the human trafficker is bad but it’s not as bad as somebody who traffics people and traffics them in an unsafe manner and I think that we have to demonstrate that we are labelling events according to their severity and according to person’s culpability.

Mr Munroe also pledged to uncover more details about the suspected human smuggling operation, noting the illegal activity could be apart of larger transnational organised crime.

“The human smuggling event on the weekend seems to not have been the classic vessel coming up from Haiti. It appeared to be an amalgamation here when you see a description of the vessel,” Mr Munroe also said.

“In my mind, something like that doesn’t just pop up and happen so we may be contending with international criminal organisations and…so there will be investigations to discover how this operation is put together.

“Is it localised? Does it involve persons in the US? Does it involve persons from Haiti? Is it a transnational gang? And our law enforcement officials will address that as expeditiously as they can.”

Mr Munroe spoke at the sidelines of the RBDF’s opening ceremony for the Exclusive Economic Zone Protection Course.

He was accompanied by RBDF Deputy Commodore, Captain Shonedel Pinder, who also gave media an update on the agency’s rescue efforts.

Cpt Pinder said yesterday’s search – a joint agency effort involving multiple government and international agencies – included aerial and submersible drones being utilised to scan key areas of interest.

He also noted the RBDF was being assisted by The US Coast Guard.

Meanwhile, at the event, British High Commissioner Sarah Dickson spoke on the importance of countries like The Bahamas protecting their marine environments.

“Over the course of a number of years, countries have become increasingly aware of the value of the maritime environment, and the threats to our safety, security and prosperity if that maritime environment is inappropriately, or inefficiently, managed,” Mrs Dickson said.

“This region comprises maritime nations – something that every country and OT has in common with the UK. This provides an inherent appreciation for the sea – and the threats and opportunities presented to us as maritime nations.”

“But,I would suggest that as the world has become more globalised, and countries have reached further in order to exploit maritime resources or to develop trade, and as criminal organisations have increased their trafficking operations, we have become more aware of the need to manage, indeed protect, our maritime environment.”