The Department of Immigration of the Bahamas arrested three Haitians and a Bahamian, accused of involvement in the arrival of two boats, of 49 undocumented Haitians on the coast of the island of Eleuthera, last week.

In a statement, the Department of Immigration said that charges will be filed against the four suspects for violation of the Immigration Act, which prohibits the protection of undocumented migrants. The three Haitian defendants, who have a permit to work in the Bahamas, were arrested after three illegal immigrants were found and arrested in their home in the village of Bannerman "Many other people had left the house and escaped the arrest," said the department.

The Bahamian arrested resident of Eleuthera, will be accused of having hosted five undocumented Haitian nationals in his house.

The captains of both vessels have also been identified and will be charged with illegal entry of immigrants, whose two of whom died.

This is one of many cases of illegal arrests of Haitian smugglers, who regularly arrive in the archipelago, without proper documents, which led the Bahamian authorities to enforce immigration policies increasingly more stringent for nationals from Haiti.

Recall that on 1 November 2014 entered into force a new law on immigration which created international controversy https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-12477-haiti-politic-the-hunt-for-illegals-is-open-to-the-bahamas.html This law states that the Bahamas will not accept applications for work visas from persons residing illegally in the country and that immigrants living in the Bahamas should always have on them, among other things, the passport of their homeland. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-12709-haiti-politic-bahamas-haiti-the-regularization-problem-of-illegal-migrants-unsolved.html

Note that the Bahamas with a population of about 377,000 inhabitants, would have almost 70,000 immigrants living on its territory, most illegal immigrants, including Haitian 20.000 to 50.000 (Source International Organisation for Migration - IOM).

See also :

https://www.icihaiti.com/en/news-13973-icihaiti-usa-a-haitian-pleads-guilty-to-people-smuggling.html

https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-13670-haiti-social-the-bahamas-will-deport-290-haitians.html

SL/ HaitiLibre