The United Kingdom is sending specialist assistance to the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) following a surge in shooting deaths in the Caribbean archipelago.
Four men were found dead from gunshot wounds on the island of Providenciales on 1 and 2 February, and two more were killed during January.
It is the second time in under two years that the British overseas territory has experienced an escalating homicide rate, after 21 people were killed over a two-month period in 2022.
The deaths were at the time attributed to warring gangs seeking to dominate the local drugs market, but police have yet to provide a likely motive for the latest murders.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), which is responsible for the islands’ internal security, stepped in in November 2022 to offer extensive support.
Now David Rutley, the UK parliamentary under-secretary of state (Americas and Caribbean), has said the office is working with the TCI’s governor and premier to provide more help.
“The UK stands with the Turks and Caicos Islands in the fight against crime,” he wrote in a brief post on X.
The FCDO’s 14-member “rapid deployment package” includes a police firearms team and criminal investigators, said Dileeni Daniel-Selvaratnam, the TCI’s UK-appointed governor.
“It is also critical we build our strategic intelligence-led operations, and therefore the deployment also includes a firearms operations planner, and a criminal and intelligence analyst.
“These individuals will expand our capabilities greatly to target our resources against the criminal networks,” she added during a live broadcast over the weekend.
Daniel-Selvaratnam said the UK team would be deployed within the week, adding that the TCI is “actively pursuing” additional tactical support from partners in the Caribbean region.
Washington Misick, the TCI’s premier, who also spoke during the broadcast, condemned the “reckless acts” and offered his condolences to “the family and friends who are suffering”.
“This is not the people that we are,” he said of the territory’s 46,000 population. “This scourge of violence robs our youths of their future and ruins lives.
“This is not a reflection of the values of the good people of this country and we will not accept it as a normal.”
Edwin Astwood, leader of the official opposition party – the People’s Democratic Movement – called the recent murders “a tremendous calamity”.
