The ceremony in progress at PAF headquarters on Wednesday.
MARIGOT--Police aux Frontières (PAF), the immigration and border police, has received seventeen new officers on rotation who were welcomed at a ceremony at the Marigot headquarters Wednesday morning.
The ceremony was presided over by PAF Zone Director in the French Antilles Philippe Duporge, a colleague of his and Commandant Jean-Luc Deras, in charge of the brigade in St. Martin. Also present were Vice-Prosecutor Yves Paillard and the Préfecture’s Chef de Cabinet, Grégoire Pierre-Dessaux
The ceremony was an opportunity to review the situation in St. Martin four months after Hurricane Irma. Right after Irma, the force stood at 100 police officers, but was then reduced to 68. The number of police will stand at 72 during 2018.
Duporge said Direction Générale de la Police Nationale is paying attention to how St. Martin is evolving in terms of reconstruction. The PAF is putting emphasis on controlling building sites for illegal workers and checking for persons residing illegally in the territory, as part of a joint operation conducted with the police on the Dutch side.
