Six immigration escapees recaptured

Jensen La Vende

Six es­capees from the Im­mi­gra­tion De­ten­tion Cen­tre (IDC) have been re­cap­tured

Of­fi­cials say some 16 men, most­ly Venezue­lans seized an op­por­tu­ni­ty yes­ter­day af­ter­noon to force their way past guards at the IDC in a mad dash to free­dom.

While the taste of free­dom was pep­pered by re­cap­ture of some, oth­ers re­mained on the loose ear­ly this morn­ing.

IDC of­fi­cials re­port­ed to po­lice that one man was grabbed at the gate, an­oth­er while scal­ing a fence and a few more in the sur­round­ing Aripo area. Of those re­cap­tured was a Guyanese man.

The men took ad­van­tage of a poor­ly lit area and as a guard was about to close the gate rushed him and forced their way out.

Po­lice and oth­er se­cu­ri­ty per­son­nel were called for as­sis­tance. Air sup­port was min­i­mal thanks to over­cast weath­er con­di­tions.

Po­lice said the in­ci­dent took place around 3.45 pm. Po­lice said the sur­round­ing ar­eas are filled with snakes and aban­doned hous­es and as­sured the re­cap­ture of the oth­er es­capees.

IDC of­fi­cials said the sen­try on du­ty was un­armed which could made the sit­u­a­tion worse.