Hundreds of foreign fishermen are finding work on Bahamian boats through a sophisticated "black market" operation, Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Leslie Miller has revealed.
Mr Miller explained that local fishermen are engaging Bahamian women to marry foreign men – so that their new husbands can be used as "cheap labour" – despite the fact that some of the men are already married.
He said there are about 600 to 1,000 of these persons in the fishing industry at the moment. Most, he said, have been brought from the Dominican Republic.
Mr Miller blamed major fishing businesses, which, he said, participate in the scheme.
"It grieves me as a representative of the people that we have such unscrupulous men that would sell our women for the sake of that dollar," he said.
"These fishermen know that they can't get a permit for the foreigners easily, so they circle around immigration laws and encourage them to marry Bahamian women, which then gives them a right to work.
"Our women are being used," Mr Miller said, "and most of the time the men they marry don't even live with them."
Mr Miller told the press that Bahamian women need to realise that not all the men who marry them are genuinely in love; some are only interested in making a few dollars.
"Unfortunately, cases have shown that the little funds these
By REUBEN SHEARER, The Tribune
