The Filipino community is to confront Immigration Minister David Burch after claiming he has made "offensive" remarks about women.

The Association of Filipinos in Bermuda (AFB) is to meet next week to issue a statement countering the Minister's comments, while Dominicans are also understood to be upset at Senator Burch's remarks at a press conference.

The Senator this week announced new visa requirements for citizens of the Philippines, Dominican Republic and Panama.

He said it was to crack down on women being brought to Bermuda as prostitutes or as wives in "sham marriages".

From May 1, Government will vet visa applications "to determine whether a marriage is a sham or a bona-fide union".

Citizens will have to apply to British embassies for visas with the information then E-mailed to Bermuda's Immigration Department. After being vetted, the Minister will then decide whether to issue a visa or not.

Sen. Burch said on Tuesday that women were being brought to Bermuda to work as prostitutes.

"The Department of Immigration has received complaints and investigated cases where women have been brought to Bermuda specifically from the Dominican Republic for the purposes of prostitution," he said.

"There have been sufficient cases brought to our attention to warrant a review, either through the Immigration hot line or the individuals," he said.

He said older Bermudian men were also marrying young Panamanian, Dominican Republic and Philippine women without them speaking a word of English. "When the Bermudian men arrive at the L. F. Wade International Airport to collect their spouses, often they cannot communicate with them as they do not speak each others' respective language."

He said many were going on to abuse their wives, forcing them to seek refuge for domestic violence at the expense of the taxpayer. "There are instances of the Physical Abuse Centre having to accommodate these women, foreign nationals," said the Minister.

"There is an economic price for the Country, because people who are brought here and who are abused and abandoned in this Country are then looked after by the taxpayer."

As from next month Panama, Dominican Republic and Philippine guest workers will also have to apply for visas via British embassies, which will verify whether their personal information tallies.

Sen. Burch said: "The Department of Immigration has found cases where a person claims to be a chef when, in fact, they are a farm labourer. In such cases, even though the work permit may have been approved, the visa application is refused and thus the work permit can be revoked."

Yesterday a representative of the Filipino community expressed their anger at Sen. Burch's remarks.

Sonia Loudermilk, AFB advisor, said: "The Minister's remarks really upset everybody. We're going to have a meeting, and plan to issue a statement. We're going to have to talk to him as well. We are offended by the Minister's remarks because he is making generalisations."

Commenting on older Bermudian men marrying younger women, she said: "As far as we're aware it's not a problem, so we found these remarks really unfair.

"But if a man likes a girl, what can we do about that? It's a personal matter.

"What he (Sen. Burch) said really upset us, especially the women. We are all educated, and don't do prostitution. We all speak English because everybody who comes here has an education. In the Philippines we have English subjects in class. Some of us may not be fluent but we all speak English.

"So we think the new visa requirements are unfair. Other nationalities don't need a visa to come here, why is it only us?"

It is understood by The Royal Gazette that a petition is also circulating among people from the Dominican Republic on-Island, against Sen. Burch's remarks.

Elaine Williams, executive director of the Women's Resource Centre, said: "We are not aware that trafficking is a large problem in Bermuda. However, some issues of concern have been brought to the attention of our counsellors by women from overseas. Particularly women of Asian descent and women from the Dominican Republic.

"Certain actions and situations that they describe are questionable under the term trafficking. We have also noted cases of arranged or Internet marriages where wives are unaware of their rights and the rights of their Bermudian children once they move to Bermuda.

"Questioning their spouses about their rights then results in threats of exportation. Such women end up becoming 'prisoners' to their Bermudian spouses. But this does not appear to be a recent issue."

Ms Williams said the WRC had only seen "a couple of cases" of abuse. "It's few, it's not a large problem," she said. "We don't know which countries the Asian women were from as our records don't require that information."

The Physical Abuse Centre did not return this newspaper's request for comment yesterday.