The Turks and Caicos Islands will not be alone in the fight against illegal drugs and migration as many feared when the UK announced that they plan to withdraw their ships from the Caribbean as part of a cost cutting exercise.
There will still be OPBAT and the US Coast Guard.
This assurance comes after a report that the British will no longer provide a warship for anti-narcotic operations in the region, and will have to reduce its role in disaster relief work. The services will lose personnel and equipment, with the navy surface fleet of destroyers and frigates being reduced from 23 to 19.
Operations Bahamas, Turks and Caicos (OPBAT), is a joint U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Coast Guard anti-drug and migrant smuggling operation.
U.S. Embassy’s spokesperson, Erica Thibault recently informed local media that the TCI are an integral part of the OPBAT program, and the effectiveness that the joint program has witnessed in the last 12 months is due to the mutual commitment to the OPBAT program on behalf of all three signatory Tripart Governments.
“Our mutual commitment to the OPBAT program, and its mission, was recently renewed and highlighted during the Joint Task Force conference held in Nassau, The Bahamas in December 2010,” she said.
The navy’s Caribbean patrol was originally set up to guard British dependencies in the West Indies. In recent years, it has taken up a joint role countering drug runners and coping with humanitarian disasters during the June-October hurricane season. The navy operates with ships from other countries, including the US, the Netherlands and France. Its patrols in the area have made a significant impact on drug
