Calling it “a bunch of nonsense,” Director of Immigration Vernon Burrows denied claims that “lax immigration enforcement” has transformed The Bahamas into a transit country for Chinese refugees bound for the United States.
“Based on U.S. Intelligence, it is our understanding that there are hundreds of Chinese in Haiti and Jamaica, whose destination is the United States. Our country, my immigration officers have really been on red alert for persons who were to fit that category,” he said, responding to an article in Tuesday’s Miami Herald.
The article, which described the arrest of two human smugglers allegedly involved in a “major Chinese alien smuggling ring,” named The Bahamas and Jamaica as “the last stop” for many United States-bound Chinese immigrants.
The Caribbean nations’ “lax immigration enforcement,” the article said, enabled the smugglers to “bring the immigrants to South Florida by air and sea.”
Outlining the illegal smugglers’ usual route ﾖ from Montego Bay, Jamaica, to Nassau, to Fort Lauderdale and then New York ﾖ the article tells of a Taiwanese-born French citizen with a home in Lyon who uses his French passport to travel to the United States, Jamaica and The Bahamas to broker deals with middlemen and to receive final payment from the illegal migrants’ families.
According to U.S. authorities, the man and his wife are responsible for smuggling more than 1,000 people over a 20-year span, earning more than $100,000 per trip.
While admitting that over the years, Chinese illegals have been smuggled through this country to the United States, Mr. Burrows stressed on Tuesday that the blame is not on immigration officers.
“I don’t know who planned that story, but to say that there’s lax immigration enforcement ﾖ that’s a bunch of nonsense,” he said. “One of the things that must be understood: people from the Republic of China needs a valid visa and passport to enter The Bahamas. And, prior to obtaining a visa we would have done some necessary screening.”
Immigration officers, Mr. Burrows said, are trained to identify foreigners who fit a certain profile described by U.S. authorities, and if they do then they are refused entry.
If smugglers and Chinese immigrants successfully enter Bahamian borders, then it could only mean that they did not approach the immigration control and “probably boarded yachts and ferries in Haiti or Jamaica” and passed through The Bahamas.
In that case, Mr. Burrows said it would then be the Royal Bahamas Defence Force’s job to stop and apprehend any suspicious boats in Bahamian territorial waters.
Asked whether there has been an influx of illegal Chinese nationals to this archipelago, Mr. Burrows said, “not through our ports.” However, he said there has been a “relatively small” influx of Chinese investors.
“One of the things we don’t want is for our country to be used as a transit point for illegal immigration.”
Continuing their efforts to counter illegal immigration, defence force officers of the patrol craft HMBS P-42 apprehended 34 illegal Haitians refugees Tuesday near the Exuma Cays.
Repatriation, even with the help of the U.S. Coast Guard, cost the Bahamian government $11,671 in October. There are currently six Chinese nationals along with other illegal immigrants being detained at the Detention Centre, on Carmichael Road.
The Bahamas was recently labeled a major drug-transit country by U.S. President George Bush. It was noted, however, that the listing of 28 nations was not an adverse reflection on counter-narcotics efforts or on levels of cooperation with the United States.
By Khashan Poitier, The Nassau Guardian
