US embassy cable - 04NASSAU153

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 NASSAU 000153 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/26/2014 
TAGS: BF, CA, PGOV, PREL, SMIG, SNAR, UK, Migration, Haiti 
SUBJECT: TURKS AND CAICOS: HAITIAN INFLUX THREATENS PARADISE 
 
Classified By: CLASSIFIED BY CHARGE ROBERT M. WITAJEWSKI FOR REASONS 1. 
4 (B) AND (D). 
 
Action Request for Embassy Ottawa:  See Paragraph 17. 
 
- - - - 
SUMMARY 
- - - - 
1.  (C)  Charge, NAS, CONS, USCG, and DEA officers visited 
Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI)  January 20-23, 2004 and met 
with the Governor, Chief Minister, other cabinet members and 
senior civil servants and law enforcement personnel.  TCI 
officials were unanimous in fearing further degradation of 
the political-economic situation in Haiti and a consequent 
Haitian outflow to TCI that the country would be unable to 
deal with.  Embassy reassured TCI officials that they will 
further strengthen illegal drug and alien interdiction 
programs through OPBAT and provide information about 
developments in Haiti that might impact their country. Demand 
for consular services resulted in a vastly oversubscribed 
appointment list.  Charge appeared on three national 
television and radio programs. 
End Summary 
 
 
Illegal Haitian Immigration -- Problem No.1 in TCI 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
2. (U)  Charge, accompanied by DEA, CONS, NAS, USCG, and 
OPBAT officials, visited Turks and Caicos Islands for 
meetings with government officials and media January 20 - 23, 
2004, on consular and OPBAT related issues.  The Turks and 
Caicos (TCI), although a British colony, are within Embassy 
Nassau's consular district and TCI is one of the three 
countries, along with the United States and The Bahamas, 
participating in OPBAT ("Operation Bahamas, Turks and 
Caicos"). Senior TCI officials were unanimous in their view 
that the political situation in Haiti was in secular 
deterioration and that TCI would be faced with an onslaught 
of illegal migrants in the coming months. 
 
3. (U)  Charge and NAS officer visited several Haitian 
communities that have arisen on Providenciales in the "Five 
Cays," "Blue Hills," and "Thompson Cove" areas of the island. 
 Following are a summary of Embassy observations: 
 
--  Border controls are essentially non-existent. Haitians 
can arrive/depart essentially at will by boat. 
 
--  Slums and solid middle- and upper-class housing for 
Haitians co-exist.  Rooms were being rented to Haitians for 
$50 a week. 
 
--  Small shops were ubiquitous with one or more located on 
the corners of most roads or blocks.  The neighborhood 
entrepreneurs have developed an informal system apportioning 
inventory so that there was little direct competition.  There 
was also an informal system to maintain uniform prices for 
products among the shop owners. 
 
--  Few of the (mostly male) adult Haitians we met with spoke 
English.  Haitian children, on the other hand, were rapidly 
acquiring a TCI accent from their schooling.  Haitian 
children, again being allowed schooling, appeared eager in 
the mornings to depart for school, and equally happy 
returning from schools homework in hand. 
 
--  Even the Haitian ghettos were quite crime free, nor was 
there a crime problem in nearby multi-million dollar ex-pat 
residences. 
 
--  As with The Bahamas, work for illegal Haitian immigrants 
in the construction and service industries of TCI was readily 
available. 
 
 
A Cabinet of Worried Ministers 
------------------------------ 
 
4. (C)  Charge met privately January 22 with Michael Missick, 
Chief (Prime) Minister of the Islands, at his oceanfront 
residence in the upper-class "Leeward" section of 
Providenciales.  Chief Minister Missick made the following 
points during the meeting: 
 
--  Appreciation for the support from OPBAT and reiteration 
of the Government's commitment to contribute 10 percent of 
the cost for replacing the deteriorated housing used by OPBAT 
personnel on Great Inagua OPBAT base. 
 
--  The influx of large numbers of Haitians into TCI presents 
serious health, cultural, financial, and national security 
concerns. 
 
--  The Government is worried about the "revolving door" in 
which repatriated Haitian migrants return to TCI within weeks 
of being deported.  The cost of the "merry-go-round" is 
seriously impacting on the government's budget. 
 
--  The Government is unhappy with London's response to the 
migration situation. Because London considers the Haitian 
problem to be an immigration, not a national security issue, 
it is not providing the TCI Government with financial support 
to defray the expense of either enforcement or repatriation. 
 
--  A promise to move quickly to implement machine readable 
passports for TCI passports as a first step in reducing 
border porosity. 
 
Give Us Pre-Clearance, Please 
----------------------------- 
 
5. (U)  Chief Minister Missick argued forcefully for 
establishment of pre-clearance facilities in Providenciales. 
He noted that 80 percent of the 165,000 yearly visitors were 
U.S. citizens arriving and departing on U.S. carriers.  The 
Chief Minister also argued that on a percentage basis, TCIers 
probably had one of the highest percentages rates of 
visitation to the United States to study, shop, and seek 
medical attention. 
 
6. (U)  The Chief Minister also argued strongly for 
establishment of a permanent U.S. consular presence in 
Providenciales to both assist U.S. citizens, as well as to 
provide visa services.  He argued that TCI residents spent 
more per capita in the United States than citizens of any 
other country while complaining that having to travel to 
Nassau for visas was both time-consuming and expensive, 
requiring a minimum of a two-night stay.  He indicated that 
his government considered a regular U.S. consular presence of 
such importance, that it would consider absorbing a 
significant percentage of the cost of building a security 
facility for Embassy personnel. 
 
7. (U)  Charge reviewed security, budgetary, and personnel 
limitations that made establishment of either a permanent 
Embassy consular presence or a pre-clearance facility in the 
near term unlikely. 
 
8. (SBU)  Chief Minister also raised the concerns of his 
government regarding both issuance of A and G visas for 
official travel, as well as airport courtesies for him and 
members of his cabinet.  Charge responded citing the various 
procedures in place in the Embassy that assured that most 
applicants received visas within one hour of paying the 
application fee,  promised that the Embassy would do all 
necessary to facilitate rapid issuance of visas for official 
travel, and reviewed the steps that the British Embassy in 
Washington would need to take to arrange for airport 
courtesies and special security handling for TCI cabinet 
members. 
 
 
Senior Officials Share Chief Minister's Concerns 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
9.  (C)  In a separate meeting chaired by the TCI senior 
civil servant, Acting Permanent Secretary William Clare, with 
Charge, DEA and OPBAT officials, Mr. Clare and a group of 
senior TCI police and immigration officials: 
 
--  Were effusive in praise of the assistance that they have 
been receiving from the U.S. while asking for an even greater 
OPBAT and Coast Guard presence. 
 
--  Reiterated their belief that Haitian migrants were almost 
exclusively economically, not politically, motivated. 
 
--  Insisted that the country was approaching a saturation 
point in accepting Haitians.  While "we can hardly blame them 
for trying to escape (Haiti)...we in TCI simply cannot 
accommodate them at the rate they are coming in," Clare 
declared.  Clare estimated that there were 15,000 illegal 
Haitians residing in a country of 30,000 citizens and only 
6,500 registered voters. 
 
--  Repeated concerns that the country's social services, 
schools, medical facilities, and public health were at risk. 
Officials noted that a majority of all pregnant mothers in 
the country were illegal Haitians. 
 
--  Requested an additional USCG presence between TCI and 
Haiti to interdict both illegal drugs and illegal aliens. 
 
10.  (C)  TCI officials told Embassy officials that they 
would need at least three additional ocean-going vessels to 
have any impact deterring Haitian immigration to TCI.  TCI 
police also noted that they currently have only one 
functioning blue water vessel. 
 
11.  (U)  TCI officials also indicated that because of their 
limited resources and on-island expertise in criminal 
investigations, they would like additional Embassy assistance 
in interceding with the FBI and other U.S. law enforcement 
agencies in doing criminal checks, providing forensics 
experts for investigations, and assistance and training in 
detection of forged documents including passports, visas, and 
U.S. currency. 
 
 
Governor: Some Similar -- and Some Different -- Concerns 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
12. (C)  In a private meeting with Governor Jim Poston, First 
Secretary David Peate,his chief deputy, Governor Poston made 
 
SIPDIS 
the following points to Charge, DEA, and OPBAT officials from 
the Embassy: 
 
--  Inquired if the Embassy was aware of a proposal of a 
Canadian member of parliament to make TCI a "freely 
associated state" with Canada and asked how seriously Charge 
considered such a proposal. 
 
--  Noted that if TCI decided to formally declare 
independence from the United Kingdom, London would interpose 
no objections as long as there was a sufficient transition 
period to arrange the transfer and assurances were received 
regarding assumption from the UK of TCI's legal and financial 
obligations. 
 
--  Noted that London was no longer providing any capital 
contributions to TCI and believed that the TCI government 
should be entirely self-financed. 
 
--  Praised the current level of cooperation and assistance 
to TCI being provided by OPBAT. 
 
--  Expressed concern about the honesty and integrity of some 
senior TCI law enforcement officials.  Embassy DEA officials 
responded that they were not aware that any confidential drug 
information provided to TCI officials had been compromised. 
 
--  Noted that because of the islands' small population, 
getting a jury to convict TCI citizens of certain crimes such 
as drug trafficking was "problematical."  For that reason, 
Governor Poston continued, he had no objection to arrests and 
trials of traffickers in other jurisdictions such as the 
United States or The Bahamas. 
 
--  Expressed concern that the drug problem/drug wealth in 
TCI was growing, but acknowledged that evidence was, at this 
point, still mostly anecdotal. 
 
--  Pointed out that since TCI had no national development 
plan, opinions about the presence of illegal Haitians was 
mixed.  He wryly observed that contractors, builders, and 
developers welcomed cheap Haitian labor even while decrying 
the threat to TCI society that they posed.  The 
compartmentalization of opinions about Haitians was such that 
even organizing a forthcoming police raid of illegal Haitians 
working in Providenciales had been complex and time-consuming. 
 
--  Acknowledged that the country continued to side-step the 
issue of the legal status of Haitians born in TCI and whether 
or not to admit them as TCI "belongers." 
--  Agreed to work with telephone provider Cable and Wireless 
to provide OPBAT with a wire and cellphone monitoring 
capability as new technologies were introduced. 
 
 
Police and Immigration:  Drugs, Terrorists, and Haitians 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
13. (C)  TCI Police Commissioner Paul Harvey admitted to 
Embassy officials that the Turks and Caicos had "essentially 
open borders."  He was concerned about reports that Haitians 
were building vessels to depart their country if political 
instability threatens, that Colombian drug cartels were 
stockpiling drugs in Haiti for shipment through TCI and The 
Bahamas to the United States, and a growing incidence of 
Haitian sloops being used for dual purpose cargoes:  illegal 
drugs and illegal migrants.  Other points made by Harvey 
included: 
--  An apparent concentration of drug smuggling activities on 
Providenciales 
where it is much easier for both drugs and illegal migrants 
to integrate into an already large Haitian community vice 
Grand Turk where newcomers "would immediately stand out." 
 
--  Recognition of heightened post 9-11 security concerns and 
the impact on TCI of a terrorist incident, but lack of 
resources to conduct even minimal background checks on 
airport employees. 
 
--  Frustration from a lack of intelligence within the 
Haitian community due to an inability to recruit confidential 
sources. 
 
14.  (C)  Senior Immigration officials echoed Harvey's 
concerns and Government fears of a worsening situation in 
Haiti.  Asked how TCI would cope with a sudden influx of new 
migrants, officials responded candidly, "Call the Embassy and 
turn to the United States for help."  OPBAT/Coast Guard 
officers reviewed recent activities by the USCG to interdict 
illegal migrants and USCG plans for an increased presence in 
the region in the coming months.  Officials complained that 
they had only daylight operating capability with the result 
being that most illegal Haitian migrants now arrived, 
undetected, in TCI at night. 
 
 
Public Outreach 
--------------- 
 
15. (U)  Embassy officials spent significant time in public 
outreach.  Charge was interviewed for 10 minutes on the 
national news and separately for 20 minutes for a new 
interview program on bilateral relations, the situation in 
Haiti and Embassy consular services to TCI.  In addition, 
Charge and Consular Chief spent over an hour being 
interviewed and responding to callers' questions on policy, 
immigration, and visa  questions on the country's national TV 
and radio network. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
16.  (C)  If the Bahamians are anxious and concerned about 
the impact of a large illegal Haitian presence in their 
country, citizens of the Turks and Caicos, with less than 10 
percent of the population of The Bahamas, are petrified. 
They fear the imminent loss of their cultural identity and, 
perhaps, political control of their country.  But, like their 
neighbors to the North, they do not know how to resolve the 
problem.  Even were they willing to increase taxes to acquire 
additional resources, a country of 30,000 could never create 
the impermeable boundary that would be required.  And, like 
The Bahamas, TCI would have trouble functioning without the 
presence of inexpensive "gastarbiters" who perform the 
essential manual labor that drives the construction and 
service industries that are the country's economic foundation. 
 
Action Request 
-------------- 
 
17.  (SBU)  Embassy would appreciate Embassy Ottawa's 
analysis of the seriousness -- or lack thereof -- and 
prospects of success of a Canadian MP's plan to offer TCI 
"freely- associated" status with Canada that some within the 
TCI Government see as possible solution to many of their 
immediate financial and migration problems. 
WITAJEWSKI