The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade is actively seized of the issue which has been reported in the media, regarding the recent detention in The Bahamas of 11 Jamaican women on suspicion of solicitation and being in breach of the Immigration Act.

Patrick Hanlan, the Honorary Consul of Jamaica in The Bahamas visited and interviewed the women who were held over the weekend and worked with The Bahamian authorities to secure their release within 48 hours.

The Ministry has written formally to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Immigration of The Bahamas to advise of its concerns that the Jamaican women may have been unfairly profiled for arrest and were not afforded proper treatment while in detention. The Ministry looks forward to their timely response. 

The Ministry deplores the fact that at least one Jamaican news outlet has carried the story of the arrest of the Jamaican women, accompanied by a potentially misleading file photograph that had nothing to do with the actual incident.