By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

WHILE there was a 16 percent decline in human trafficking incidents in 2021 when compared to the previous year, the issue continues to be a “big concern” for authorities, according to Royal Bahamas Police Force Commissioner Paul Rolle yesterday.

Last year there were 16 recorded incidents compared to 19 recorded in 2020.

The data was released by Commissioner Paul Rolle yesterday, who also suggested there were human trafficking incidents being investigated already this year, but the cases were not reflected in information released yesterday.

“It is a concern,” Commissioner Rolle said. “Let’s start with that. It’s a big concern because we have some Bahamians who are now seeing it fit to get involved with the smuggling and trafficking of persons.

“The correct number of incidents I believe that would be in your package but some of those were this year now, so they may not necessarily be reflected in the package that you may have already received but that is a concern and we are working and doing some things to stem that.

“That’s why you’ve been seeing it because along with the (Royal Bahamas) Defence Force and the police marine and US Coast Guard working jointly to stop this and try and save lives, we still have a challenge from persons trying to smuggle their way from the south from Haiti mainly and so yes, that’s a big concern for us.”

In 2019, there were 14 incidents of human trafficking, while 2018 saw seven and in 2017 there were 11.

Last month, RBDF Commodore Raymond King said human traffickers had resorted to more advanced tactics to evade authorities. The Commodore said at the time that RBDF intelligence had uncovered new trends in the way migrants move, using American sailing vessels to conceal themselves.

“Our migrant apprehensions would have increased by some 456 percent year over (year) in comparison,” Commodore King said during an Office of the Prime Minister press briefing in January. “Of course, the migrant movement during the month of September would have (contributed) to much of that.”

He also said: “Our strategy is focused on being able to intercept those migrant vessels in particular in the southern Bahamas.

“However, there’s a new trend with the migration movement. New tactics - evasive and concealment tactics - being used to evade smuggling activities. They’re now using American sailing vessels to conceal their movement as opposed to the traditional Haitian sailing sloops.

“The traditional Haitian sailing vessels are now being equipped with outboard engines to quicken their transit northbound into The Bahamas.

“Additionally what we’re experiencing now is we have multiple vessels leaving from multiple ports in Haiti with multiple destinations in mind and so it requires us to prioritise which target of interest based on the availability of our assets to intercept solely as an organisation or leveraging the assistance from the United States Coast Guard and finally our local law enforcement agents once we would have detected the vessels and handed over the information to them.”