-
by pltm
(PLTM) - Edourre Roro, who was charged and imprisoned on ten counts of manslaughter, and one count of smuggling, is being deported back to his home country.
Roro’s charges stem from an incident of human smuggling, back in 2010, which left eight Haitians dead.
The convict, who was the captain of the boat at the time, was sentenced to serve 10 years at Her Majesty’s Prison.
On Monday, July 24, the Governor issued a deportation order in his name, which speaks to the extradition of the man to his home country, and a permanent ban on his return to the BVI.
An excerpt from the order reads, “Roro has been convicted of the offences of manslaughter and smuggling migrants, which are punishable with imprisonment of three months or more and, is a person whose presence in the Territory would, in the opinion of the Governor, acting after consultation with the Chief Immigration Officer, be undesirable and not conducive to the public good.”
The accused is expected to leave the Territory sometime this week.
Renold Plaisimond, the first mate on the small boat, was already deported from the Territory in 2015.
Plaisimond was convicted and sentenced to six years imprisonment in the human smuggling operation.
According to court records, around midnight on Sunday, December 5, 2010, police along with other law enforcement and rescue agencies were notified that a 25-foot fiberglass vessel carrying migrants, leaving St. Maarten and bound for the US Virgin Islands, had run aground on a reef off Brandywine Bay.
Her Majesty's Customs, Virgin Islands Search and Rescue and U.S. Coast Guard immediately began rescuing individuals from the waters around the wreckage and detaining those that had made it ashore.
According to police, 35 persons had been aboard the vessel. Five bodies were initially found in the waters at the scene of the wreckage, but in the days that followed, the death toll rose to eight - four adults and four children.
There were 27 survivors - 14 males, 11 females and the two crew members. Local officials had called it a unique case of cooperation among law enforcement agencies and legal bodies that led to the convictions on manslaughter and smuggling.
According to local authorities, the tragedy left authorities in St. Maarten, USVI and Virgin Islands with one aim - to find the culprits responsible for smuggling the Haitians onboard and the tragic deaths of eight individuals, including four children.
