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Hatians dead in Turks and Caicos detention centre

Published on Wednesday, September 19, 2007

GRAND TURK, Turks and Caicos Islands: Two Haitian nationals being held at the government Detention Centre on Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands died on Monday night. Six other Haitian nationals being held at the Centre were taken to a clinic to be treated for dehydration. Two of these were in critical condition and one of them subsequently died in the course of the day. The cause of death will be established by a pathologist who will be arriving in the Turks and Caicos Islands shortly to conduct autopsies. The others remain at the clinic.

At the time of these deaths, the Detention Centre was accommodating an unusually high number of Haitian nationals, due to the arrival on Providenciales of two sloops from Haiti in quick succession: one on Friday 14 September carrying 74 persons and another on Sunday 16 September carrying 176 persons. All were detained on the grounds of attempting to enter the Turks and Caicos Islands illegally.

All the detainees were finger-printed and held temporarily at the Detention Centre whilst they were checked to establish whether any of them had previous involvement in a crime in the Turks and Caicos Islands. They were given food and water.

On the morning of Monday 17 September, medical staff were called to the Centre to treat some detainees who were ill. Two were found to be severely dehydrated and were taken to the clinic for treatment, while a number of others were given oral rehydration at the Centre. There being no reports of other medical problems, except for some minor eye infections which were treated with antibiotics, the medical team left the Centre and did not have cause to return until they received notice of the deaths.

Urgent efforts are being made by the Immigration Department to arrange charter flights so that the detainees can be repatriated to Haiti as quickly as possible. The return flights began on Tuesday morning, 18 September and, subject to the availability of aircraft, all the detainees who are fit to travel should be repatriated within 48 hours.

The Royal Turks and Caicos Islands Police Force have launched a full investigation into the deaths and were due to pass an initial report to the Coroner by the end of Tuesday.

The police are also making efforts to identify the deceased.

The Turks and Caicos Islands Government is convening a Working Committee to accelerate on-going work to find and to implement urgent solutions to the problem of over-crowding at the Detention Centre. The Working Committee was due to hold its first meeting on Tuesday afternoon and to consider both the handling of any further surges in the numbers of illegal immigrants in the immediate term as well as the expansion of the accommodation space at the Centre as soon as possible. The Working Committee will also look urgently at the manpower resources and procedures followed at the Centre.