NASSAU, BAHAMAS – National Security Minister Wayne Munroe said officials arrested at least 22 irregular migrants over the weekend as they began enforcing the mandate that people trespassing on government land leave the area.
The operation followed the end of the 14-day period he announced last month for people to leave protected areas and desist activities like clearing protected trees and excavating the land.
“After the view of the Carmichael site, we gave notice to persons who were trespassing on crown land, cutting protected trees without a permit, excavating without a permit and that’s on public or private land that they must desist or we would act,” Munroe told reporters ahead of a cabinet meeting yesterday.
“That period of notice ended on Saturday. The Royal Bahamas Police, BOWEN, the Royal Powers Police Force and immigration have a series of operations that they will plan to enforce those provisions and New Providence, Andros, Abaco, and Grand Bahama.
“On Saturday, they started at Bonefish Pond National Park. They didn’t find anybody trespassing in the national park. They did have a view of two adjacent properties.
“From an immigration perspective, they apprehended I think it’s twenty-two irregular migrants. The nationalities are Haitian, Ecuadorian and Jamaican. They then completed that exercise sooner than they had anticipated. Because, you know, we had all of these accounts of what we would find and they didn’t find it necessarily in Bonefish Pond.”
“So they moved on to Harrold and Wilson Pond National Park. That’s right off Milo Butler there. There were I think it’s two or three arrests by the police with regard to criminal warrants and other warrants. They may have apprehended irregular migrants there. They didn’t complete that exercise so the areas to be completed in New Providence would be Harrold Wilson Pond, Carmichael Road, and any areas of unlawful cutting or excavating.
“They will then have to plan the missions on Abaco, Andros, and Grand Bahama and they will have to advise of their priorities in doing that. But as we say at the end of this whole process we expect for law enforcement to have prevented all and stopped all of the illegal actions across these areas.”
During a visit to the Carmichael Road site last month, officials encountered a family living in a bus.
“The Minister of Social Services engaged with them,” Munroe said yesterday about the family.
“By the time the team goes to that area, there should be specific legal directions from the Office of the Attorney General as to how we would proceed there.”
Munroe also revealed last month that the person responsible for large-scale clearing of land in the area is a Bahamian, not a Haitian as some have insisted.
He said the operation is driven by a Bahamian who has heavy equipment to clear lands and appears to have hired indentured works.
Asked yesterday if the operator will be charged with a crime, Munroe said that’s a matter of the Office of the Attorney General.
“I know I’m a lawyer,” he said.
“I have my views but I have to take advice from the Office of the Attorney General. On the inspection, the Minister of State for Legal Affairs. Minister Campbell and I did have a conversation about the raft of criminal and civil consequences that we could make flow. So it’s a matter of looking at the Proceeds of Crime Act.
“It’s an act that permits you to get people to disgorge the profits they made from criminal behavior. And the issue is whether this criminal behavior is caught by that. So if it is and you quantify how much fill has been removed, then you go after the person’s property to recover the proceeds of crime. So persons will find that the government will be very innovative and leave no stone unturned in using the remedies available to it to call people to account.”
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