Near Two Hundred Detained In Eleuthera After Immigration Apprehension Exercise

"We will go to every rock, island and cay in the Bahamas to make sure that the immigration laws of the Bahamas are upheld and we would like to warn those who are here illegally to leave or to try to have their status regularized."

A Joint Apprehension Exercise took place during the wee hours of the morning on February 4th, 2009, with the Department of Immigration, the Defense Force and the Royal Bahamas Police Force coming together to detain individuals in Central and North Eleuthera who were suspected of being in the country illegally.  In excess of 80 law enforcement officials were involved in the exercise.

According to Senior Deputy Director of Immigration, Mr. Roderick Bowe, “A dual part exercise was executed, one in the North and one in Central Eleuthera to apprehend persons we assumed were illegal.  We got in at 1am and commenced the operation.  We were able to apprehend 90 persons in North Eleuthera (mainly focused around Harbour Island) and 104 persons from around the Governor’s Harbour and Palmetto Point area.   

“It’s our job to ensure that persons who are here in the Bahamas have some kind of legal status, whether it is as a visitor or someone with a work or spousal permit - that they have the proper documentation.  So persons who have entered the Bahamas illegally and are employed illegally, we’ve been trying to put a dent into that kind of activity.

“Our staff indicated the need to conduct such an exercise.  So preliminary investigations were done and reconnaissance was conducted to ensure that we had the information that we needed prior to coming down.  Shortly after midnight the operation was executed and it was a very successful exercise. 

“The Department of Immigration will continue in this vein.  We will go to every rock, island and cay in the Bahamas to make sure that the immigration laws of the Bahamas are upheld and we would like to warn those who are here illegally to leave or to try to have their status regularized.”

Persons taken into custody from this morning’s exercise were processed at the Governor’s Harbour Immigration office, where Immigration officials tried to determine what kind of documentation status individuals possessed.   It was found in a number of cases that some persons had no work permits, but had applied for work permits, with applications pending.  Some had applications which had been responded to with a period of time to pay for those permits, but they had not done so.  As a result, there was also a long line of persons waiting to pay for pending permits.  Certain individuals were also found to have no legal documentation or right to be in the country. 

Mr. Bowe also commented, “Sometimes people think that if they are here in the country for a particular length of time that is the only requirement for them becoming legal in the Bahamas. However, you could have been here for the last 25 years, not applied to the Immigration Department to have your status legalized and you are still illegal, and the public needs to know that.”

There were a handful of people who had been in Eleuthera for a length of time, but had not made the step towards applying for legal status, so were without status.  The Immigration Department communicated that those cases are being handled separately and a determination would be made based on the individual merit of the case. 

Persons, who continued in the custody of the Immigration Department after being processed earlier today, were transferred to the Detention Center in Nassau via the Bahamas Ferries Sea Link vessel shortly after 2pm – where they would await the next available repatriation flight. 

Mr. Bowe highlighted that much education is still needed to make the public more aware of Immigration procedures.  The Department, under the auspices of the new Director, Mr. Jack Thompson, has embarked recently on creating a new customer service and public relations arm of Immigration to serve this purpose.  He remarked, “We’ve embarked on this new initiative of informing the public, because the Department of Immigration has been around for a very long time and it is still an enigma to many people.  This being our 70th year we are going to go about informing the general public what the Department is all about, and what the officers do.”

Scenes on Wednesday February 04, 2009 - On Cupid's Cay, Governor's Harbour Eleuthera.