The Minister of Labour and Immigration, the Hon. Keith Bell held a press event at the House of Assembly where he addressed how his ministry is tackling the rise in illegal migration.
Bell mentioned migrants that were recently apprehended off the coast of Andros saying, “the unlawful entrants were taken into custody on the 5th of March. Following an extensive search of land a total of 127 Haitian nationals were apprehended.”
On the expense of repatriation to the government Bell said, “it is something that we don’t want to create a strain but obviously it is putting a strain on government purse but its something which must be done. I think that we have to be more innovative in terms of how we meet these repatriation costs. Particularly even though most of these persons come from Haiti, Haiti is in no position to the financial means. I think that through strengthening our immigration laws when we have these smugglers, when we have these vessels which would have been confiscated and even though there have been times when we sink these vessels it may be that we may wish to sell some of them as we have done in the past.”
The minister appealed to those that would make the illegal trip to The Bahamas to stay home.
