The Ministry of Foreign Relations announced that 127 Dominican fishermen who had been in jail in The Bahamas for alleged fishing in Bahamian waters have returned. 120 of the men had been in jail in The Bahamas since 13 October 2018. Another seven had been arrested in 2019. The three crews of the confiscated fishing boats are to remain in The Bahamas to fulfill their sentence.
The return of the fishermen was thanks to efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Relations, the Dominican Embassy in Jamaica, the Dominican honorary consulate in The Bahamas, the Association of Owners of Fishermen Boats in Puerto Plata, and other government organizations.
Foreign Minister Miguel Vargas said that the Ministry, the board of the Dominican Council for Fishing and Aquaculture (Codepesca) and the Association of Fishing Boat Owners of Puerto Plata signed an agreement in October 2018 to install fishing vessel monitoring systems (VMS) in Dominican fishing boats so they can know for sure when they are fishing outside Dominican territorial waters.
Read more in Spanish:
El Caribe
Listin Diario
4 July 2019