Seeking to recruit at least 700 Immigration Officers before the end of the year, Director of Immigration Dr. William Pratt and his team at the Department of Immigration, welcomed 107 new recruits to the department yesterday.

Forty-nine males and fifty-eight females were welcomed yesterday at Immigration headquarters on Hawkins Hill by Dr. Pratt and are set to join the elite class of uniformed officers.

“We welcome you to one of the greatest departments in the government service, the Department of Immigration.

“We have been established in 1939 and we have been growing since, and it is our desire to increase our officers recruit to at least 700 officers.

“As you know we are an archipelago of many islands and cays and we do need to safeguard our borders, so I want to welcome you and I expect great things,” Dr. Pratt told the recruits.

The largest new recruit squad to-date, Dr. Pratt, in welcoming the new recruits, admonished them to bring not only their physical fitness but also honesty and the ability to be gatekeepers.

“Not only physically, but we are asking that you bring with you your integrity, and we ask that you be reminded that you are being hired as doorkeepers of this country.

“And so, we do ask that we guard our heritage or our borders,” Dr. Pratt said in encouraging the recruits.

The recruits will be in training for 16 weeks, and will under-go a rigorous training in academics and physical fitness.