NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The bus ride from the detention center to the Lynden Pindling International Airport was short for 51 men and 11 women, who boarded a Bahamasair flight bound for Haiti.
The latest group was repatriated as immigration officials continue their push to remove people found to be in the country illegally.
Acting Assistant Director Chedville Adams says the department has its marching orders.
Chedville Adams – Assistant Director, Department of Immigration
“We have exercises going on all throughout the country…they’ve been given a mandate by our director and our minister to perform our duties, of course in all the professional ways that we can…”
However, the repatriation flight wasn’t the only immigration activity we witnessed.
Another Bahamasair flight arrived, with foreign nationals escorted off the aircraft in handcuffs, surrounded by immigration officers.
Adams identified them as Chinese and Dominican nationals who were also facing deportation.
Also, he revealed that officers had also detained several Haitian nationals arriving from Grand Bahama that very morning.
Chedville Adams – Assistant Director, Department of Immigration
“On a daily basis our enforcement unit and any other officers from LPIA will conduct checks on domestic flights coming from the islands, and this morning you would have witnessed officers conducting a check from Freeport, and that would have caused the arrest of a few Haitian nationals that came in from Grand Bahama.”
Chedville Adams – Assistant Director, Department of Immigration
“Those individuals who do not have status in the Commonwealth of The Bahamas are subject to arrest, prosecution, detention, deportation, and immediate restrictions from coming back to the Commonwealth of The Bahamas.”
