Turks and Caicos Islands: Haiti

(asked on 10th November 2015) - View Source

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help prevent people migrating illegally from Haiti to the Turks & Caicos islands.


Answered by
James Duddridge Portrait
James Duddridge
This question was answered on 20th November 2015

Through the Conflict, Security and Stability Fund the Ministry of Defence has delivered maritime training to the Turks and Caicos Islands to build maritime police capacity as well as to facilitate their participation in Exercise TRADEWINDS 16, an annual regional exercise sponsored by the United States. This will enable Turks and Caicos Islands maritime police to work and train in partnership with the Royal Bahamian Defence Force and the United States Coastguard, to develop mutual capacity, relations and integration to help deter and detect irregular migration. Her Majesty's Government has also funded an Immigration Adviser between September 2013 and March 2015 to help build Turks and Caicos Island’s capacity to deal with the full range of migration challenges.

Our Embassy in Haiti continues to press the Haitian government to finalise a Memorandum of Understanding to establish agreed arrangements for repatriations and better communication on migration issues. In parallel, our Embassy in Haiti will be taking forward work on a public diplomacy campaign in Northern Haiti to highlight the dangers and risks of attempting the dangerous sea crossing.

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