Monday morning, the Ambassador of Haiti to the Bahamas, Antonio Rodrigue has confirmed that on the night of Sunday to Monday individuals had broken into the Embassy of the Republic of Haiti, in Nassau located on Shirley Street, caused many damage and walked away with two safes.

"This morning (Monday 8 a.m.), when the people who work here arrived, they found the door wide open," indicating that he had left the embassy around 6:30 p.m. the day before and that everything was secured, the gate and the door have been locked stressing that the thieves had broken the doors of the office. After inspection of the premises, Ambassador Rodrique indicated that no passports or confidential documents were stolen, adding that the robbers took two safes containing a certain amount of money undisclosed "They don't take documents even though they went through everything, all the drawers, they didn't take any documents or computers, they just took two safes."

According to the Ambassador, the burglary has no connection with the new migration measures, which came into force on 1 November (1).

"We think they were after money because they opened all the drawers and took everything out, but they didn't take any papers. The embassy was targeted maybe because they know we see people coming here to do passports and other services, and they pay. So they know there is money and because it's a weekend they know we don't have time to go deposit the money [...]"

(1) One new initiative mandates that everyone living in the Bahamas must have a passport of their nationality. It has also been mandated that persons who are applying for a work permit without legal status will need to be certified by a local embassy or nearest Bahamas mission in their home country. Certificates of identity issued to people born to foreign parents legally residing in the Bahamas will not be renewed, instead a passport of their nationality with a resident stamp will be required.

SL/ HaitiLibre