The senior police officer in charge of the roundup of nearly 200 Haitian nationals in North Eleuthera on Friday said yesterday that there is no need for anyone to apologize in relation to the matter, but he admitted that police should have done some things differently.
Assistant Superintendent Christopher McCoy said in retrospect, police should have had immigration authorities on the scene who were able to verify in Eleuthera whether the immigrants were in the country legally.
One hundred and seventy nine of the 193 people picked up were later released from the Detention Centre in New Providence after immigration authorities determined that they were in the country legally.
“I made the decision that in order for us to really understand what was going on in the community it was best to bring those persons into New Providence because I didn’t have the luxury of having access to the immigration department’s database to confirm whether or not these persons were in fact in possession of legitimate work permits,” Mr. McCoy told The Bahama Journal at his East Street North office at police headquarters.
He confirmed, however, that there were two immigration officers on the scene during the arrests but he said “at that hour of the night, they weren’t able to assist me.” The two immigration officers work as part of the police’s “Quiet Storm” operation.
Mr. McCoy’s comments came as debate raged over the incident with the overwhelming majority of callers into the Love 97 programme “Issues of The Day” yesterday supporting the actions of the police and praising the leadership of recently appointed Minister of Immigration Shane Gibson.
But in other circles, Minister Gibson and the police were roundly criticized over the incident.
Mr. McCoy explained that the police had intelligence that illegal activities – including gun and drug trafficking and the selling of stolen goods – were taking place in areas like Spanish Wells, Russell Island, and Blackwood.
“We were being driven by police intelligence and criminal activities, not so much the illegal immigrants aspect of it, but I think for the convenience of the parties involved I would have taken the immigration department personnel along,” he said.
Mr. McCoy also said that while police picked up people they thought could have been in the country illegally, they recovered no illegal guns or drugs, or stolen goods.
Mr. McCoy also said that the immigrants did not have documents on them when they were arrested, although some immigration officials who spoke with The Bahama Journal said that many of the immigrants came to the Detention Centre with documents in hand.
“Bahamians travel to the United States at all times and whenever they move about, one of the things they would want to do is have their passports or some form of identification for a situation like that,” the senior police officer said.
“No documents were shown to us. Some of them, if they produced documents at the Detention Centre, it is possible that they had [them] in their possession, but they didn’t produce [them] to us. When we asked them to produce [them], they didn’t. Had they produced [them] to the police I know the situation might have turned out differently.”
Mr. McCoy said upon returning to New Providence on Friday, he learnt that many of the immigrants did have legal documents, but he said another concern was that while the immigrants may have had work permits, many of them were not working for the employer who secured the work permits for them.
“That too, as far as I know, is a breach of the immigration work permit policies,” he said.
Asked if the effort was a wasted one for the police, Mr. McCoy quickly said “not at all”.
“As a result of this, we learnt some things,” he said. “We know that for sure that in communities such as these there are criminal activities-When you look at it in hindsight, I think we acted in good faith.”
He also denied claims that some immigrants made to The Bahama Journal at the Detention Centre on Friday night that police had handcuffed them.
Also weighing in on the issue was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Cynthia Pratt who said the police will fully report the circumstances surrounding the raid.
She said Bahamians must be careful not to spread rumours.
“We as Bahamians we can start up a rumour,” she said. “On the one hand, we say ‘Clean it up’ and on the other hand when you intend to clean it up [people say] ‘oh, you shouldn’t do it this way.’ When do you win? That’s the question. You’re damned if you do and damned if you don’t. It’s never a right way because whatever you do is wrong. How will the man (Minister Gibson) clean it up?”
She said a report would no doubt be made when parliament resumes next week. The deputy prime minister also said a political game is being played.
“You just can’t win for losing,” she said, adding that Minister Gibson will not be deterred in what he has to do.”
While the immigration minister refused to call the Eleuthera exercise a raid, the deputy prime minister said yesterday that it was.
By: Candia Dames, The Bahama Journal
