Extra staff are being assigned to the compliance division of the Department of Immigration for the coming year.

However, Walter Roban, the Shadow Minister of Home Affairs, said more should be assigned to investigate the mistreatment of workers by their employers.

Mr Roban said he was aware of nurses coming to the island for hospital work who were quickly moving on to “juicy options” in the private sector.

Fellow Progressive Labour Party MP Walton Brown urged the Bermuda Government to investigate the plight of domestic workers, as well as making the penalties stricter for abuse.

Mr Brown also maintained that the practice of “fronting” in property transactions was not a myth, and that a lawyer with the department had at one point been keeping a file of instances.

Sylvan Richards, the Junior Minister of Home Affairs, acknowledged that abusive employers were a longstanding problem, compounded by the reluctance of people to speak out, but urged anyone with knowledge of such cases to communicate them to the Department of Workforce Development.

Mr Brown also took the ministry to task over recent advertising intended at educating the public on the new Pathways to Status initiative, saying the campaign had consisted “mostly of women of colour”, while the majority of prospective candidates were white.