According to Assistant Director of Immigration William Pratt, 201 migrants were rounded up around 5:30am in the Farm Road area, from Wulff Road to all of the side streets leading to Gaol Alley, like Peter Street, Lily of the Valley Corner, Brougham Street and Fowler Street.
Of the group of 192 Haitian nationals, there were 36 females, 127 males and 29 children, according to Mr. Pratt.
He also informed that there were nine Jamaicans – three females, four males and two children.
“There was no hostility,” Mr. Pratt said.
The immigrants were reportedly placed on waiting buses and taken to the Carmichael Road Detention Centre where they were processed.
But Mr. Pratt said some of the immigrants were here in The Bahamas legally. In fact, he said of the 201 persons rounded up, 30 of the immigrants had legal status.
“Some of them did not have their papers on them. Thatﾒs why they were taken to the Detention Centre. That was confirmed with our office,” the assistant director said.
“But they have already been released.”
The government faced a firestorm in some circles in early April when police picked up nearly 200 Haitians in Eleuthera and transported them to New Providence where they were taken to the Carmichael Road Detention Centre.
Authorities ended up releasing the vast majority of them after it was determined that they were in the country legally.
Immigration Minister Shane Gibson explained at the time that there was a concern that some of the documents could have been fraudulent and that police were taking no chances.
But that has not been enough to appease the Free National Movement, who slammed the immigration blunder, as an operation that was both “ill-conceived and poorly executed.”
FNM Leader Hubert Ingraham recently said that those immigrants have just cause to sue to seek legal action, a comment he reiterated on Tuesday during an interview with the Bahama Journal.
“People who have legal papers from the Bahamas government to be here, to live here, to work here, to have their families here are what we call permanent residents,” Mr. Ingraham said.
“They and their families were picked up in the dead of the night. They were not allowed to show that they were legally entitled to be here. And they were brought to Nassau by the police, taken to the Detention Centre, [then] back down to Spanish Wells by a private citizen.
“And I think those personsﾒ rights have been abridged and abused, and they like any one else have legal entitlements because they are legal [immigrants]. They are quite distinct from illegal immigrants in The Bahamas.”
On Tuesday, Mr. Pratt said the next repatriation exercise would most likely take place next week, and at least 114 Haitian immigrants will be sent home.
By: Macushla N. Pinder, The Bahama Journal
