The Caribbean islands battling the region’s ‘highest murder rate’

Jacques Phanor used to sleep with his windows open.

Until just a few years ago, the Turks and Caicos Islands were known predominantly as a luxury Caribbean tourist destination.

The startling beauty of the archipelago has regularly earned it “world’s best beach” titles, and thrust it onto the bucket lists of the globe’s most affluent travellers.

But alarming levels of violent crime have rocked the once sleepy British Overseas Territory, earning it accolades it welcomes far less.

Last year it recorded 48 homicides, which, given its population is less than 50,000, gave it the worst murder rate per capita in Latin America and the Caribbean, according to one study.

This year the territory had already recorded 24 killings up to mid-August, heightened by the first mass shooting in its history in July, which left four dead and nine injured.

“People are very afraid,” Jacques, a church pastor who lives on the main island of Providenciales, tells the BBC. “Some are even leaving. We all love the islands, the economy is good, but the crime environment is terrible.”

With record-breaking numbers of holidaymakers – almost two million – visiting Turks and Caicos in 2024, the crime does not yet appear to be affecting tourism.

But there are fears that unless efforts to curtail it prove successful, crime could threaten its mainstay, estimated to account for at least two-thirds of the economy.

Some, including the islands’ Premier Washington Misick, have been quick to blame migrants from Haiti, which lies just 90 miles to the south. They flee to Turks and Caicos to escape gang-led turmoil and violence back home.

“The crime situation is worse in the Haitian communities [on Turks and Caicos],” concedes Jacques, who was born in Haiti, and moved to Turks and Caicos where he gained citizenship 28 years ago.

Most of those slain this year are of Haitian nationality, he says.

Jacques and his young family were themselves victims of an armed robbery last December. “We were held at gunpoint by a guy who entered the country illegally on a boat. I am just one example,” he adds.

Premier Misick dubbed July’s mass shooting in a local bar a “gangland-type slaying”, and appealed to Haitian community leaders to help “keep these islands safe”.

“You know who these violent criminals are, you know how guns are getting into the country,” he charged.

A statement from the Haitian Heritage Association called for a “united front” in stemming the scourge – and lamented “hateful narratives” levelled at Haitian people by some members of the Turks and Caicos public.

Some believe the territory’s complex citizenship laws have inadvertently created a crucible of disenfranchised Haitian youngsters. Children born in Turks and Caicos struggle to acquire legal status if neither parent has such.

As the government grapples to arrest a surging tide of Haitian migrants entering the country illegally by boat, deportation efforts have been stepped up.

“They’re picking [Haitian] people up on every corner, every street, on the road, at workplaces,” Jacques says. “Most of the time the parents want the kids to remain here, rather than go to Haiti [with them], where it’s chaos. So they stay with friends, family, church members.”

“A lot of kids fall through the cracks,” adds Jacques. “They turn 18 and try to get a work permit as if they were a foreigner. Often they’re turned down even for those.”

The country’s proximity to Haiti is “both a blessing and a curse”, he believes. “They need migrant workers to keep up with development, but Haiti’s violence is spilling over to Turks and Caicos.”

Recently implemented anti-crime efforts include temporary curfews, tighter controls on establishments selling alcohol, and increased search powers for police.

Meanwhile, a crackdown on informal settlements that police say harbour criminals saw more than 220 shanty homes bulldozed in August.

Tourism provides the bulk of Turks and Caicos’ revenues, bringing in $250m (£186m) during the first half of the 2024-2025 financial year.

But while the country has seen rapid development over the past two decades, not everyone has reaped its benefits, says local reporter Wilkie Arthur.

“Many people don’t even want to be in gangs, they just can’t find work. We need to empower them so they won’t have to rob someone for a couple of dollars,” he says.

“A lot of gang members have legal status here, and there’s also a number of local boys involved. Blaming it all on Haitians is not a good representation of the truth.”

Wilkie knows all too well the plight of young men existing on the margins of society. An ex-convict himself, he previously served 11 years behind bars for the armed robbery of a jewellery store. Since his release in 2023 he now tries to steer others away from crime.

He agrees that too many young people of Haitian origin are finding themselves in legal limbo when they finish school. “They have no proper documents so the gangs recruit them, feed them so they become loyal to them, and then the gangs just get bigger.

“Every graduating year, a lot of the kids don’t have proper documents. Some are very bright and take their education seriously, but what do they do if they want to eat and survive?”

Turks and Caicos is not alone in experiencing an upsurge in gang violence in recent years. A 2024 United Nations report spoke of an “intensification of organised crime and … lethal violence” across the Caribbean region.

It said surging drug production in South America, which often passes through the Caribbean on its way to the US and Europe, and the high availability of firearms, had “contributed to soaring homicide rates”. It named Jamaica, St Lucia and Trinidad as particular areas for concern.

Yet the report added that “only a handful of the hundreds of gangs” in the Caribbean were active in trafficking drugs and guns to the US and elsewhere.

Instead it said “most gangs in the Caribbean” were “typically parochial, and focused instead on protecting their territory”. It added that the gangs were more often involved in local drug dealing, prostitution, scams, extortion, disrupting elections and securing government contracts.

How much responsibility the UK bears for Turks and Caicos is the subject of much discussion.

Premier Misick recently wrote to British Foreign Secretary David Lammy to express the “gravity” of the situation. He reminded that the UK has ultimate responsibility for the territory’s defence and internal security, and invited Lammy to visit and see the challenges for himself.

A Foreign Office spokesperson says British ministers were in close contact with the islands’ authorities, adding: “Together, we are continuing to invest in policing and border security to address complex national security threats and safeguard the interests of the Turks and Caicos Islands.”

The UK says it has provided £9m in security support over the past two years, including coastal surveillance systems, boats, contracted firearms officers, and investigators.

Turks and Caicos Tourism Minister Zhavargo Jolly says while crime is a “concern”, “the government, police and community leaders are working together to restore trust and ensure people feel safe, so the Turks and Caicos will remain not only one of the world’s most beautiful destinations, but also a safe and welcoming place for all to visit”.