WORKING GROUP DISCUSSES REGULATING WOODEN-HULLED COMERCIAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 NASSAU 001244 SIPDIS SENSITIVE INL/LP FOR KEVIN BROWN WHA/CAR FOR JOE TILGHMAN DHS/OIA PASS TO CARIBBEAN ATTACHE OFFICE, MIAMI E.O. 12958 TAGS: SNAR PGOV PREL BF SUBJECT: WORKING GROUP DISCUSSES REGULATING WOODEN-HULLED COMERCIAL VESSELS REF: NASSAU 799 -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (SBU) On September 6 the U.S./Bahamas Joint Task Force (JTF) Working Group held a meeting to follow-up its June 14 meeting discussing how to eliminate the narcotics and migrant trafficking threats posed by wooden-hulled Haitian sailing sloops in The Bahamas. During the discussions, Bahamian officials stated that Bahamian law requires that, upon entering Bahamian waters, all commercial vessels departing from Haitian ports check-in and offload cargo at Great Inagua. Non-Bahamian owned vessels are prohibited from traveling any further into Bahamian waters and Bahamian owned wooden-hulled freighters may travel, without cargo, into Bahamian waters. The Attorney General's Office presented draft legislation that would incorporate the Code of Safety under the Caribbean Cargo Ships and Caribbean Small Commercial Vessels Agreements into Bahamian law, effectively banning wooden-hulled commercial freighters from The Bahamas. Bahamian participants agreed to a follow-up meeting to discuss enforcing existing regulations and the Working Group will meet again in November to finalize a report to be presented at the December Joint Counter-Narcotics/Illegal Migration Task Force Meeting (JTF). End Summary. -------------- CURRENT LAW -------------- ¶2. (U) On September 6, representatives from the U.S./Bahamian Working Group on Combating Trafficking by Wooden-Hulled Haitian Freighters met. The Bahamian delegation included representatives from Customs, the Police and Defense Forces, the Attorney General's Office and Port Security. Embassy representatives included the Narcotics Affairs Officer (NAO),the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) and the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). This meeting followed a June 14 meeting of the Working Group that was established at the conclusion of the Joint Counter-Narcotics/Illegal Migration Task Force (JFT) Meeting of June 8, 2007 (Reftel). The Working Group was formed to discuss how to combat the migrant and narcotics threats posed by wooden-hulled sailing freighters traveling to The Bahamas from Haiti. The Working Group meeting of June 14 generated a number of follow-up items to be researched and discussed on September 6. ¶3. (U) During the September 6th meeting, representatives from the Office of Attorney General presented copies of the existing laws regulating the entry of vessels originating from Haitian ports into Bahamian waters. Under current law, any commercial vessel traveling to The Bahamas from Haiti must enter Bahamian waters at Great Inagua and disgorge any commercial goods in Great Inagua. Following discharge of their cargo, vessels owned by Bahamians are free to travel within Bahamian waters and vessels that are not owned by Bahamians must immediate leave Bahamian waters. Bahamian participants acknowledged that the laws concerning check-in and discharge of cargo are not being enforced. This generated a wide-ranging discussion among Bahamian participants and an agreement for a follow-up meeting among Bahamian law enforcement agencies to discuss enforcing existing laws. -------------- THE WAY FORWARD -------------- ¶4. (SBU) The Attorney General's Office presented two pieces of draft legislation as a follow-up to the June 14 meeting. This legislation would codify into Bahamian law the Code of Safety under the Caribbean Cargo Ships and the Caribbean Small Commercial Vessels Agreements. The Bahamas is a signatory to both of these Caribbean-wide agreement, but never drafted implementing legislation to incorporate their provisions into Bahamian law. These agreements provide health and safety standards applicable to wooden-hulled commercial freighters, along with an enforcement mechanism that would effectively ban the freighters from Bahamian waters. Both the United States and the Turks and Caicos Islands used the approach of requiring health and safety standards that the wooden-hulled freighters can not meet, to ban the wooden-hulled sailing freighters from their waters. While, passage of this legislation will require an act of Parliament, this should be a formality as The Bahamas has signed the Caribbean Cargo Ships and Small Commercial Agreements. All of the meetings participants agreed that legislation represented the best long-term solution to the smuggling problem presented by these freighters. ¶5. (SBU) Bahamian participants discussed their concerns about the entry of small arms into The Bahamas via commercial pleasure vessels. As this issues involved internal Bahamian policies, it was agreed that the discussion would continue in an exclusively Bahamian forum at a later date. The Working Group agreed to re-convene on November 8 to discuss the outcome of the Bahamian only enforcement meeting and to agree on a report to present to the December JTF meeting. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶6. (SBU) This meeting continued the active U.S./Bahamian dialogue on the migrant and narcotics trafficking threats presented by wooden-hulled sailing freighters from Haiti. Working level and senior Bahamian law enforcement officials have come to view the Haitian freighters as a critical drug and migrant threat. This represents real progress, as the initial discussions about this threat generated lots of talk from our Bahamian counterparts about the problems taking on the threat, rather than how best to deal with overcome it. Enforcement of existing laws, along with implementing the strict codes drafted by the Attorney General's Office should eliminate the freighter threat from Bahamian waters. Post will use the December 2007 JTF meeting to convince the government to champion the draft legislation. END COMMENT ELMO