ARTICLE - BAHAMAS OFFICERS IN HAITI?

GOV'T WANTS TO STATION INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS IN HAITI
(Nassau Guardian) - By Royston Jones, Jr.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration Fred Mitchell said yesterday that as part of the new administration's agenda to counter the influx of Haitian immigrants to The Bahamas, the government is seeking to place intelligence officers in Haiti.

Mitchell said the problem of illegal immigration needs to be tackled in two parts.

The first step is to ensure that the Royal Bahamas Defence Force has the necessary resources and is properly structured.

He said the next step is to strengthen ties between the governments of The Bahamas and Haiti.

"Foreign Affairs will play some role in trying to reinvigorate the agreement with the Haitian government to get intelligence officers inside Haiti to track where the smuggling is taking place and stop it at its source, and bottle up the smugglers," Mitchell told the Nassau Guardian.

"That really has to be job number one. Job number two has to be cleaning up the situation in town (New Providence) where people are working without work permits, and both of those will be energetically followed up and vigorously pursued."

Haitian President Michel Martelly engaged in talks with Bahamian officials and businessmen earlier this year, as part of efforts to improve Haitian interests at home and abroad.

During his two-day visit to Nassau, Martelly met with then Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham, Minister of National Security Tommy Turnquest and Minister of Foreign Affairs Brent Symonette to discuss the illegal immigration and border security issues, among other national interests.

A similar set of discussions took place with then Opposition Leader Perry Christie and key members of his administration, including Mitchell.

"We told him (Martelly) that we left in place a joint commission agreement and we want to revitalize that," Mitchell said.

"That joint commission gives the framework in how we approach a whole range of issues, including immigration with Haiti and the (details) about intelligence officers in Haiti was part of that joint agreement."

Successive governments have received scathing criticism from political opponents on the contentious issues of immigration and hiring of foreigners in the country.

In its platform in the build up to the May 7 general election, the Democratic National Alliance (DNA) accused the Progressive Liberal Party (PLA) and Free National Movement (FNM) of not having a long-term national policy on immigration outside of apprehension and repatriation.

Mitchell added: "Immigration is a very contentious issue because there are two competing plains; there is the revenue side which immigration contributes about $40 million to the revenue, but there is also the demand that you put Bahamians first.

"I want to go into the Department of Immigration with the philosophical underpinning that Bahamians must come first and I plan to move quickly to pursue that as an agenda item".

718 Haitian immigrants were apprehended during 2009, compared to the 1,258 apprehended in 2010, reflecting an increase of around 34 percent, according to Defence Force operational statistics.

However, in 2011, 1,093 were apprehended, representing a decrease of around 13 percent over the previous year.