The Portland Police are awaiting a report from the Passport Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA) to determine the nationalities and identities of nine individuals suspected to have arrived on the island by boat between Sunday night and yesterday morning. 

Preliminary reports are that residents spotted a boat on the beach in the early hours yesterday and called the police. 

Police later took into custody nine persons at Hope Bay.

Head of the Corporate Communications Unit of the JCF, Senior Superintendent Stephanie Lindsay told Irie FM News this morning, that the individuals are suspected to be Haitian nationals.