Immigration Sweep apprehends Five, additional efforts ongoing.

Suspected illegal immigrants  escorted on to the plane by Immigration with the supported of police.

(Eleuthera, Bahamas) – A general sweep, conducted by Immigration and Police officers throughout Eleuthera and Harbour Island on Thursday, August 4th, 2016, resulted in five illegal immigrants taken into custody, including four (4) males and one (1) female, who were all transported by Southern Air charter to New Providence for further processing at the Detention Center before repatriation. According to Immigration Officer In Charge, Eleuthera District, Shema Darling, several teams working in different districts across the islands conducted spot checks in a number of areas, including Harbour Island, areas in central Eleuthera, from Palmetto Point to Gregory Town, as well as a team further south.  Inspector Neely, with the Royal Bahamas Police Force, commented on the south Eleuthera team’s efforts and their plans to continue the search, saying, “Acting on information today, we went into various districts in the south, and were able to net one male. Unfortunately, we were not able to find the other persons that we were in search of, but our efforts are not going to stop there.  As I speak,  we have officers on the ground and we will continue the operation into the night and into the early morning hours.”

Immigration officers in Eleuthera also recently noted success in a court case from 2015, on Wednesday, July 27th, 2016, where one Haitian/Bahamian female and a Bahamian male who had been charged with aiding and assisting an illegal landing were found guilty, and fined $3,000 each or 1 year in jail.  According to authorities, the guilty parties both paid the fine.  A case stemming from an incident which occurred during  October 2015, also concluded in March of 2016, where four people who had been charged with assisting an illegal landing pled guilty and were given fines of $1,000 each.

A third case, where a group of five males, including one Bahamian, were charged with assisting an illegal landing, is also still pending before the courts.