Ministry requests help in mystery of missing Jamaicans

Ten Jamaican men vanish without a trace en route from the Bahamas to Miami.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Wednesday May 16, 2012 – How could ten men vanish without a trace?  That’s the question being asked in three different countries about a group of Jamaicans who reportedly left the Bahamas for Miami by boat between late February and early March this year and have seemingly disappeared into thin air.

While details are sketchy about the more than two-month disappearance, it is clear that Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is taking the matter seriously.

The ministry has issued an urgent request for information on the ten missing men following reports from concerned family members of at least five of the individuals, who say they have received no communication from them.

In an advisory issued to the media, the ministry said: "Unconfirmed accounts indicate that approximately ten Jamaican men travelled from Freeport, Bahamas, to Miami, Florida, by boat on Friday March 9, 2012. Family members of five of these missing men have made contact with the ministry to request assistance in locating them.”

“According to their families, no word has been received from them since the date they were alleged to have gone on the aforementioned boat trip."

The ministry has, in the meantime, called on other individuals whose family members might have been aboard that vessel to contact its Diaspora and Consular Affairs Department with that information. The ministry said, too, that it has sought assistance through the Jamaican Consulate in the Bahamas and the Jamaican Consul General in Miami as well as the local police.

According to the foreign ministry, individual family members have independently sought the assistance of the police in Jamaica, the Bahamas and the pertinent authorities in the United States of America as well, "and so far these investigations have revealed no boating accident or the detention of the men in those countries". Click here to receive free news bulletins via email from Caribbean360. (View sample)