Five persons are currently in police custody as the investigation continues into the discovery of 26 Haitian nationals, who are suspected to be part of a people smuggling ring.
The Ministry of Home Affairs yesterday afternoon announced that the Haitian nationals were found last weekend after the police conducted two search and cordon exercises in Georgetown and Region Ten.
Some of the Haitian nationals were discovered in a city hotel while others were found in a minibus on the Linden-Mabura road. Among those found were seven children, including two boys and five girls.
According to a ministry statement, the discovery was made as part of an investigation into a suspected human smuggling racket and trafficking in person ring.
“Those discovered are currently in protective care pending the outcome of the investigation,” the statement noted.
Police sources had previously told Stabroek News that the Haitian nationals had given information to immigration that they were here for either business or vacation in the capital.
This newspaper was reliably informed that it is suspected that the Haitian nationals were being smuggled to French Guiana.
A source revealed that during interrogation, one of the females told investigators that she was given two children at the Port-au-Prince airport in Haiti to take to French Guiana.
There have long been concerns about Haitian and Cuban nationals entering the country legally but exiting illegally.
Asked last year to account for hundreds of Haitians who have arrived in this country but did not leave legally, Minister of Citizenship Winston Felix had said that the police have found no evidence of people smuggling and that the majority reported to Brazilian immigration authorities when they crossed the border from Guyana.
