WILLEMSTAD - Last year, the Caribbean Coast Guard seized considerably less drugs than the year before. And human smuggling fell by more than half in 2020. The Coast Guard attributes both declines mainly to the consequences of the Covid pandemic.
This is stated in the 2020 Annual Report of the Caribbean Coast Guard. In 2020, nearly 6,000 kilos of cocaine and more than 600 kilos of other drugs were intercepted. This catch is much smaller than the year before when more than 10,000 kilos of cocaine and 1,000 kilos of other types of drugs were seized.
This decrease can also be seen in human trafficking: last year the coast guard arrested 159 illegal migrants; a halving compared to 2019 when there were 377 illegal immigrants.
“For most of 2020, the Caribbean region has faced restrictive measures on multiple fronts, such as temporarily completely closed countries' borders. Furthermore, the intensified pre-emptive presence of Coast Guard and Defense units has made smuggling more difficult and probably contributed to the aforementioned declining movements,” the Coast Guard said.
The Coast Guard's annual report was presented to Dutch Parliament, along with all other annual reports from the ministries.