Last night, ten undocumented people from Venezuela tried to enter Aruba illegally. When they were told to stop by the coastguard, they tried to escape. They were spotted at Aruba’s southeastern side when the coastguard shot in their direction and hit the motor of the boat. They then boarded the ship and took the undocumented people to the coastguard’s base at ‘Marinierskazerne’ in Savaneta. Around 11:00 pm on Friday, police observing the radar saw a boat coming from Venezuela to Aruba at high speed.

They immediately informed the coastguard, which then sent out both their plane and their metalshark boats. In the meantime, the police used their helicopter to keep following them and sent out a police unit to Colony. “We consider tonight’s actions successful,” Randy Paskel, head of the coastguard, said around 2:00 am to press at their base in Savaneta. There, everyone on the boat from Venezuela will be evaluated. Both coastguards and police have a role in the action, from investigating the illegal immigrants to processing their deportation. Coastguard has been on a high alert lately because of the difficult political situation in Venezuela.

Coastguard’s primary mission is to guarantee that our borders are safe and to make sure no boats carrying illegal immigrants will enter our island. We will see more special jeeps from the coastguard, police, and service members controlling our coast during these coming weeks.