Immigration and Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell yesterday said that The Bahamas namely Bimini and Freeport have become passage ways for the smuggling of Chinese.

Mr. Mitchell says as of June 1st at the Bahamas Immigration Detention Centre there are 42 Chinese nationals who were apprehended before reaching their intended destination in the United States.

“I can say they were being smuggled because the person responsible has in fact pleaded guilty, an American national who was charged in the Magistrate’s court in Freeport and convicted and fined $300 dollars or three years then seen out of the country,” he said.

The minister said it was last year the penalties were changed to a five year maximum sentence with a $10,000 fine.

He wished to reiterate that the policy of the parliament is that there is supposed to be a severe fine for anyone who engages in this sort of activity.

“It seems to me that all of us, the judiciary, and the executive legislature including our citizens at large ought to be on the same page about the kind of penalties inflicted on the people who engage in this activity.”

The largest groups containing 46 persons held at the Detention Center are Cubans whom he says have become extremely problematic for the country.

“We’re trying to move them out as expeditiously as possible for a couple for reasons, their expertise at destroying, breaking up and breaking out and planning escapes. Secondly, they have these adherents in the United States who feed both from a propaganda point of view and help them try to escape from the facility creating a security problem for us,” he said

“So I wanted the public to be sensitized to this is as well and to say we are working as expeditiously as possible to ensure that these numbers do not get out of hand.”

There are currently 129 persons being held at the Detention Center, 46 Cubans, 42 Chinese, 17 Haitians, 8 Jamaicans and 16 other different nationalities.