Nassau, Bahamas - The following are remarks by the Hon. Fred Mitchell, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Immigration:

I wish to welcome Damien Gomez, the Minister of State for Legal Affairs to the M inistry of Foreign Affairs and to thank him for the work done on behalf of the country at the hearings before the Inter American Human Rights Commission on 20^th March. I thank his minister the Honourable Attorney General for the stellar work done by her team toward ensuring that The Bahamas put its best foot forward. I wish to thank the staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and particularly our staff in Washington D.C. for their work in this matter.

We appeared in this forum in Washington because The Bahamas is keen to ensure that we do all that we reasonably can to protect and defend the reputation of our country.

I am using this opportunity to solicit the support of the media in the continuing conversation on immigration which is a paramount national security issue. We need the public’s support.

I want to let you know that this is a continuing exercise the fight against illegal migration. The more we see, the more it suggests that we are fighting a sophisticated criminal enterprise which is seeking to make money at any cost and in the process attempting to destabilize The Bahamas. All Bahamians must fight this.

On 21 March 2015, acting on intelligence, the RBDF intercepted a vessel off Abaco that morning around 1 a m.

45 males and 11 females and 5 children intercepted without visas.

They were brought to Nassau that same afternoon and detained at the detention centre. The children are in the safe house.

We expect to repatriate them shortly to Port au Prince.

They are now in the custody of Immigration.

We are asking our intelligence people to actively go over the record of this interdiction so that we can be fully briefed on these latest developments. I hope to be in a position, subject to further advice, to brief the Cabinet on Tuesday and then the House on Wednesday.

As you know the Immigration Amendment Bill is now before the Senate and the Government Leader in the Senate expects that its passage will come before the end of the month. This bill is key to the other part of the immigration strategy which is to allow a status for those who were born here to foreign parents and not yet been granted permanent residence or citizenship.