Twenty “irregular” Haitian migrants were apprehended in the North Sound area of Virgin Gorda last week, bringing the total number of migrants detained in the territory over the past six months to more than 100, according to the Immigration Department.
But the current status of the migrants found last week — and many of the ones found earlier this year — is unclear.
The latest group, which was detained on July 23, included 12 males and seven females, three of whom were children, the department announced the next day in a press release.
With the help of the Police Marine Unit, the Haitians were transported from Virgin Gorda to Tortola. They were undergoing “intake processes” by the Immigration Department’s Enforcement Unit as of July 24, the press release stated that day.
No further information has been provided since then.
The 20 Haitians brought the total number of migrants apprehended here since mid-February to at least 108, including 52 other Haitian men, women and children the government struggled to process due to restrictions on sending them back to their violence-plagued country.
Immigration officials did not provide more information this week in response to Beacon requests, but at the time of their most recent comprehensive update on March 26, at least 45 Haitians were in custody without a clear path forward.
Other groups
The incident last week came after at least five others like it in recent months.
On Feb. 14 and 15 on Cooper Island and in nearby waters, 32 Haitians, including 11 children, were found along with the two Syrian men, according to police and immigration officials.
All told, 18 of them were males, including four children between the ages of 1.5 and 4, acting Chief Immigration Officer Nadia Demming-Hodge told the Beacon at the time.
The 16 females included seven children ranging from 1.5 to 5.5 years old.
On Feb. 29, 14 more migrants were found in an abandoned building on Virgin Gorda after entering the territory illegally, police said.
They included nine Haitians and one national each from Cameroon, Romania, Britain, Ecuador and France, Ms. Demming-Hodge said at the time.
Nine were male and five were female, including a French child, she added.
Another VG group
Twenty-one more migrants were apprehended March 21 in the North Sound area of Virgin Gorda: 12 Romanians, four Haitians, two Colombians, one American, an Irish national and an Ecuadorian, Ms. Demming-Hodge told the Beacon at the time.
Eighteen were male, including three children, and three were female, including an American child, she said.
On April 19 in Coxheath, 19 more migrants who had entered the territory illegally were apprehended, according to police and immigration officials.
The group included ten Romanians, seven Haitians, one Ecuadorian and one Honduran, the Immigration Department announced at the time, adding that two were minors.
On April 25, police, customs and immigration officers apprehended two India nationals on Peter Island after receiving a tip. Though government announced at the time that more migrants were believed to be in the Peter Island area, no further captures were reported.
Hotel Castle Maria
As of March 26 — the last time the Immigration Department provided a comprehensive update to the Beacon — the migrants apprehended on Feb. 15 and 29 remained at Hotel Castle Maria, which serves as a temporary immigration detention centre, along with the four additional Haitians apprehended March 21.
“The additional 17 migrants were detained at Paradise Suites,” Ms. Demming-Hodge wrote in an email at the time.
“However, the department has since repatriated 16 individuals, resulting in 53 migrants remaining in immigration custody, 45 of which are Haitians.”
She has declined to comment on the costs of housing and processing the migrants, and security guards and other personnel at Hotel Castle Maria have declined to comment.
UK urged to step up
Days before the migrants were apprehended in Virgin Gorda last week, a senior VI official warned that Britain should step up efforts to help combat migrant smuggling and other cross-border crime impacting overseas territories like the Virgin Islands.
Benito Wheatley, the special envoy for the premier, said he hopes the newly elected Labour administration in London will provide greater resources to tackle such issues instead of insisting that the OTs provide the bulk of the money needed.
The comments came during a July 16 BVI Finance panel held less than two weeks after Labour swept to power on July 4.
“Security in all the territories is important,” said Mr. Wheatley, who is the brother of Premier Dr. Natalio “Sowande” Wheatley.
“In the Caribbean, we have an issue throughout the entire sub-region of islands being used to traffic drugs, contraband. We also have the issue of economic migrants popping up in boats and so on. We have boats from Venezuela; we have some from Haiti.”
Mr. Wheatley said OTs had discussed such issues among themselves in the run-up to the last Joint Ministerial Council meeting between the territories and the UK government in London last November.
He said they agreed that a change in attitude was needed.
“There is a real issue of security that we have to work together with the UK on to address it,” he said. “So that is there on the UK’s obligation as well via its membership of the [United Nations]. They are responsible for ensuring there is proper security for the territory.”
He added that the UK can do a better job in this regard.
“The UK can contribute more resources that can help the territories to have better security,” he said.
Haiti violence
Much of the Caribbean has seen a surge in Haitian migrants after violence in their country escalated dramatically at the start of this year.
A coalition of armed gangs took control of much of the country after then-prime minister Ariel Henry left in late January to sign agreements in Kenya and Guyana for an international security force to help restore order.
The gangs prevented his return and demanded his resignation. In April, they got their wish, and a transition council was sworn in.
A multinational security force backed by the United Nations began arriving in the country in June with a first contingent of hundreds of Kenyan police officers.
But the violence has continued since then, and CNN reported this week that security forces protecting interim Prime Minister Garry Conille had to provide covering fire as he left a hospital following an interview with the news agency.
Mr. Henry had led the country since July 2021, following the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.
Agency seeks info
The Immigration Department has pledged to work with other law enforcement agencies and the community to tackle human smuggling in the territory’s waters.
Anyone with information to the migrants apprehended last week is urged to contact the department at 468-4705 or 468-4754 or the police at 311, according to acting Chief Immigration Officer Nadia Demming-Hodge.