Bahamian authorities say the country is frighteningly short of labor and bodies to develop the mini archipelago off Florida going forward.

Veteran Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell told reporters that the country is headed to a population crisis and would need both foreign labor and an increase in numbers to sustain a healthy nation. He was at the time responding to reporters about the emergence of shanty towns in Abaco Island that are linked mostly to Haitian refugees and boat people. Haitians are believed to account for more than a quarter of the national population.

“So, Abaco and labor issues in this country are complex,” he said. “First of all, the country has a major shortage and requires labor from the outside to complete many of the jobs here. The population of The Bahamas is either at replacement level or just below replacement level. So, its rate of natural increase is in fact declining. This has all kinds of implications for national insurance, for pensions and all the rest of it.”

Like fellow CARICOM nations Guyana and Barbados, officials have been complaining about the shortage of skilled labor to deal with construction booms and even the normal pace of industry. The country of about 300,000 has been grappling with efforts to amend its immigration act to allow children born to a foreign parent to obtain local citizenship and other rights. Legislation to deal with this is being prepared for parliament in the coming weeks following recent court rulings outlawing the ban on citizenship to children born to one foreign parent.

“If you go to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the population of UAE citizens to workers from the outside is something like three to one, but [it’s] no issue. You need workers to get the country going. The problem we have here is that there’s a lack of understanding or recognition of this, and people are emotionally upset about what they see as a group of people trying to take over the country. I assure you, no one can take this country over unless Bahamians allow it. There are rules in place. Immigration works. It does its work,” Mitchell said.

But even as the Cabinet recognizes the skills shortage and an unacceptable rate of population growth, authorities are still enforcing the island’s notorious immigration regulations and anti-refugee policy especially as it pertains to Haitian boat people, many of them too poor and needy to construct proper homes. The courts recently allowed authorities to dismantle several shanty areas, saying this was unacceptable in a country almost completely dependent on tourism for survival.