Caribbean nervous about visa travel for nationals
Caricom governments, most of them in the smaller Eastern Caribbean subgrouping, are on edge following a decision by the UK government to reimpose visa requirements for citizens of Dominica amid concerns that its cash-for-passport scheme is letting in “undesirables.”
London announced the move in the past week, saying it comes into immediate effect except for passengers who would already have confirmed tickets for travel until mid-August. Thereafter, they will also have to find a British embassy, most likely in nearby Barbados, to apply for a visa as the UK is unhappy that Russians and other nationals are obtaining Dominican passports and entering the UK as Dominican citizens.
Countries across the Caribbean from St. Kitts and Antigua in the north to Grenada in the south are nervous, fearing that they may be in the next phase of the plan by the UK to block what it calls an easy loophole for unqualified people to enter British ports.
Authorities in the subgrouping worry that the UK is punishing them because of their lucrative Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) which allows foreign nationals to apply for local passports and citizenship once they spend relatively small sums like $100,000, invest in local real estate, or start up a business employing locals. Those with active CIP schemes include St. Kitts, Antigua, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Grenada. St. Vincent has flatly refused to do so under current Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves who argues that “citizenship is not a commodity for sale.”
The UK and the European Union have been urging the CIP participating countries to abandon that scheme, saying it is a security risk as wealthy people with dubious backgrounds take advantage of visa-free travel to this part of the region to enter the UK.
CIP counters by arguing that the hundreds of millions generated from these schemes have replaced the exports of banana and sugar to the UK and the EU, which have abandoned duty-free and other preferential benefits for former colonies in recent decades. The shortfall in state revenues have to be made up elsewhere. Free trade in the 15-nation Caribbean single trading system has also resulted in a loss of import duties as well as other policy decisions made by western nations over the years.
Suella Braverman, the British home secretary for immigration, said in a recent statement that the move to reimpose visa requirements for nationals of Dominica, Honduras, Namibia, Timor-Leste, and Vanuatu has been taken solely for migration and border security reasons and is not a sign of poor relations with these countries.
Shaken up by the move, Antigua Prime Minister Gaston Browne warned his countrymen to brace for a possible negative impact in the coming months, being well aware of the opposition to the CIP scheme the west has maintained in recent years.
He told the Observer newspaper that “although the UK has said nothing about the other OECS countries, when your neighbor’s house catches fire, wet yours.”
Meanwhile, the acting British envoy to the Eastern Caribbean Charley Williams also weighed in. “The UK and Dominica enjoy a close relationship and our governments work together on a range of international issues. Today’s announcement is a response to our long-standing concerns about Dominica’s citizenship by investment program and the risk it poses to the UK. The changes will bring Dominica in line with many other visa national countries around the world with which the UK has strong and friendly relations. They do not change our commitment to the relationship between our countries or to Dominica’s future. Visas provide access to the UK while helping to secure the UK border,” he said.
The post Caribbean nervous about visa travel for nationals appeared first on New York Amsterdam News.