'40 Non-Bahamians A Day' Being Picked Up By Immigration Staff

'40 Non-Bahamians A Day' Being Picked Up By Immigration Staff

Thursday, November 27, 2014
#By AVA TURNQUEST
#Tribune Chief Reporter
#aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

#IMMIGRATION officials yesterday estimated that an average of 40 undocumented non-Bahamians have been picked up daily in New Providence since new resident regulations were implemented on November 1.

#Kirklyn Neely, officer in charge of enforcement, told The Tribune that the Department of Immigration conducts checks at least four times a week, and have apprehended as many as 60 people in one day.

#“We go out every day,” Mr Neely said, “not in big numbers. If we go out in big numbers then we would carry the police or the defence force, but this is every day. We go out four times a week, and we apprehend anywhere between 40 to 50, sometimes 60 persons a day.”

#Mr Neely spoke to The Tribune by telephone while at the Lynden Pindling International Airport, where he received 19 Chinese nationals, and one Jamaican, who were picked up in Freeport.

#The Department of Immigration deported 228 Haitian nationals on two Bahamas Air flights yesterday.

#According to Mr Neely, there are around 108 Haitians remaining at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre. He also confirmed reports that 23 Haitians were picked in Abaco after an illegal landing.

#Yesterday’s deportation exercise follows reports that talks with two major international organisations over the government’s controversial new immigration restrictions were postponed.

#Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell said he may meet with the secretary general of the Organisation of American States (OAS) and the CARICOM caucus next week instead.

#This comes after OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza expressed concern about the country’s “rounding up” of illegal immigrants in a Jamaican newspaper.

#On Tuesday, Philip Miller, acting permanent secretary in the Department of Immigration, sent a letter to the editor of the Jamaica Observer refuting assertions outlined in the article published last week about the government’s new immigration policy.

#Of the several new immigration policies implemented on November 1, however, the mandate that everyone living in the Bahamas must have a passport of their nationality has proved to be the most contentious.

#The measures were announced in the House of Assembly on September 17 by Mr Mitchell.

#While the Bahamas government has maintained that the new policy is non-discriminatory, human rights groups have severely criticised the move as it directly impacts the largely undocumented community of Haitian migrants – many of whom were born in the Bahamas.

#Incensed by photos of children being led away by immigration officers, Daphne Campbell, a Democrat in the Florida House of Representatives, called for tourists and international businesses to boycott the country.

#Human rights groups that have expressed concerns over the new policy include Amnesty International, Robert F Kennedy Centre for Justice and Human Rights, and the Grand Bahama Human Rights Association.

#Mr Mitchell has maintained that controversy and international criticism has been fuelled by misinformation, adding that the backlash was a tactical effort sparked by sensationalist human rights activists.

#Last week, the United Association of Haitians and Bahamians released recommendations to the government about revising the new policies that includes extending the time frame to six months for Haitians to acquire their passports and other documentation.

http://www.tribune242.com/news/2014/...igration-staf/