After the go fast boat they were traveling on reportedly ran out of gas, a group of suspected Haitian migrants fleeing Haiti ended up wandering in a community on Crooked Island before authorities took them into custody, Island Administrator Shandrose Thompson said yesterday.
Thompson said the boat was discovered at a marina in Landrail Point, Crooked Island, on Monday night and a 31-year-old Bahamian man, who authorities suspect was the captain, was arrested after residents became suspicious.
Thompson said eight migrants were caught in Pitts Town, a small community next to Landrail Point, yesterday morning.
After officials searched the area, four more were caught.
At last report, eight men, three women and a girl were in custody, Thompson said.
She said police suspect the boat had at least 20 people onboard. A search was underway to locate any remaining migrants.
“They ran out of gas, so clearly this was not their pit stop,” Thompson said.
“They are in good condition. They are faring well. They have been fed and given water and being treated as humane as possible.”
Police on the island were awaiting the arrival of a Royal Bahamas Defence Force (RBDF) boat to pick the group up.
Cuban migrants
The RBDF also reported that 18 Cuban migrants were caught in two separate incidents, one on Sunday and the other on Monday.
The first incident happened on Buena Vista Cay in the Ragged Island chain on Sunday.
The RBDF said local fishermen reported that people were stranded on the cay.
When the RBDF responded, officers found five Cuban men and a small makeshift boat on the island.
The men were taken to mainland Ragged Island and later to New Providence.
The second incident happened near Bimini, officials said.
Acting on intelligence, the RBDF responded to a reported sighting of a rustic sailing vessel near Bimini by a US Coast Guard aircraft.
“Upon arriving and further investigation, 11 men and two women were found to be onboard and were later transported to Bimini and handed over to Bahamas immigration for further processing,” the RBDF said.
The apprehensions happened as Minister of Immigration Keith Bell rejected a claim that there is an immigration crisis in The Bahamas.
When asked to respond to the Free National Movement (FNM) calling on the government to do more to address the illegal immigration “crisis”, Bell responded, “What immigration crisis?”
He said the government “absolutely” has illegal immigration under control.
The RBDF reported more than 2,600 migrants have been apprehended so far this year.
Those figures exceed apprehension figures over the last three years.
According to data provided by the RBDF, 342 migrants were apprehended in 2019, 249 in 2020 and 1,644 in 2021.
