Former State Minister of Immigration and Democratic National Alliance (DNA) Leader Branville McCartney yesterday said the frequent influx of illegal immigrants to The Bahamas will continue to persist if the county’s laws and policies are not revamped.

Having worked on the ground, Mr. McCartney said the regular apprehension and deportation exercises are not the answer.

In an interview with the Bahama Journal, Mr. McCartney lamented that the problem is getting worse”.

“How we’re looking at it now, is not fixing it. The reality is, they are going to remain here and we have to fix it,” he said.

“It’s very unfortunate that we have a number of persons born in this country and they basically end up with no type of status in this country. They are unable to further their education. They are unable to find jobs legally. They are unable to open up a bank account and they are unable to travel. As a result that causes another subculture in our society,” he added.

Mr. McCartney suggested that the failure to deal with the country’s illegal immigration problem is a contributing factor to the country’s crime dilemma.

“There is no excuse for crime, but the reality is that it affects us and by extension it affects the whole country. I think the DNA will be the one bold enough to address it so that the country benefits. We need to fix that. We can’t fix it by apprehending then deporting. That hasn’t worked. We need to fix it whereas those persons are able to live a good life and contribute to society,” said Mr. McCartney.

Meanwhile the DNA leader said such factors have led his party to form an immigration policy, which it thinks will be beneficial to the country as well as the illegal immigrants.

“At our convention we are going to put forth a policy in this regard. This is the policy that we want to implement to resolve for the most part, this problem; which will be helping the country as a whole and also addressing the unfortunate circumstances of persons who have been born here. They live a life of very little meaning because of this lack of status, and that has to be addressed,” Mr. McCartney said.

In an address to the United Nations General Meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Perry Christie stressed the importance of developing a comprehensive approach to the problem, especially focusing on the underlying causes that motivate many individuals to resort to desperate and dangerous measures in search of better opportunities.

Over the weekend authorities apprehended about 120 Haitian migrants in waters near Inagua.

That exercise brought the number of Haitian migrants to 190 for the year.

Here in The Bahamas, more than 5,000 illegal immigrants were repatriated last year.