On a typical day, authorities in The Bahamas are centered on sustaining the mini archipelago off Florida as a protected haven for tens of millions of vacationers who calm down on the plethora of seashores, resorts, and different leisure spots.
When they aren’t so engaged, efforts are focused on navigating the plethora of issues besetting governments, crime discount, bettering well being care, and offering high quality schooling for residents, amongst different key tasks.
However in latest weeks, authorities say they’ve been compelled to confront a brand new phenomenon that’s threatening to undermine the water sports activities elements of its lifeline tourism sector – sexual assaults and rape – of some guests by rogue jet ski operators.
Lower than a handful of incidents the place American vacationers complained of rape or sexual assaults have reached each the administration of Prime Minister Phillip Davis and American diplomats, and it seems now that authorities will take decisive motion to weed out this follow.
Minister of Safety Wayne Munroe and different high officers say preliminary investigations level to unlicensed jet ski operators as the primary culprits. Authorities are going to tighten rules relating to their involvement in watercraft sports activities. The Bahamas performs host to as much as 12 million vacationers yearly.
“Investigations into these reported incidents have revealed an awesome involvement of illicit operators who weren’t licensed by the port division to conduct business jet ski operations,” the transport stated in an announcement on the weekend, noting that “these unlawful operators” don’t characterize a reliable a part of the sector.”
And in what some might contemplate a weird suggestion, Minister Munroe has instructed that “it’s our view and the police’s view that requiring body-worn cameras to be hooked up to the life vest once you lease a jet ski would search to mitigate a few of the points. Most individuals commit sexual offenses in personal, so if in case you have a stay digicam on it, you then’re by no means alone. The body-worn cameras truly allow you to speak to a base, so in case you get injured, you possibly can name for assist.”
Rape and sexual assault aside, the American mission additionally referred to accidents sustained by vacationers by the hands of some operators noting that “since August 2024, 4 US residents have been hospitalized with accidents from jet ski accidents. Of those, two wanted emergency evacuations to the US because of their accidents. As a result of safety dangers, US authorities workers working in The Bahamas are prohibited from renting and utilizing skis on New Windfall and Paradise islands,” the mission said.
In an attention-grabbing twist to the saga, the Tribune newspaper reported that President Trump had raised the problem in his first time period with then-Prime Minister Hubert Minnis, asking him to cope with the scenario as complaints had been on the rise.
“His concern at the moment was jet skis and the pleasure cruise that toured the American vacationers. There have been too many complaints about harassment and different types of aggression or illegalities. We don’t want legal guidelines. What we’d like is enforcement. We’re a rustic of legal guidelines however not a rustic of enforcement, and that’s what the president was principally saying,” Minnis famous.
