- Plane with Cubans denied landing rights in St Vincent
On Saturday, St. Vincent’s government denied landing rights to a charter plane operated by Turpial Airlines that carried over 60 Cubans to land at Argyle International Airport.
This is the second time in a month the government denied landing rights to charter flights with migrants seeking to make their way to the U.S. Southern Border.
Turpial Airlines is a Venezuelan airline that has its hub at Arturo Michelena International Airport in Valencia, Venezuela.
“We didn’t give permission for an airline out of Venezuela. A charter called Turpial would have brought 60+ Cubans out of Venezuela to transit somewhere else,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said on Sunday”.
Gonsalves said that the government will not allow St. Vincent to be a transit stop for individuals who want to go to other places.
“We will not allow our country to be a transit hub for individuals who want to go to other places. On the face of it, it appears as though the transit is for some purpose connected to onward migration.”
Gonsalves stated that SVG has no visa restrictions on Cubans, but people coming in mass is an entirely different story.
“We don’t have visa restrictions on Cubans, but the Cubans who come here and work, which is a relatively small number, have to get work permits; that is a different story than people coming in mass; we just would not allow that.”.
Gonsalves announced on Sunday, April 7, that two charter flights, one from Nigeria with 374 passengers and a few Nigerians, and another from Dubai that travelled through Morocco and on to Argyle, had their landing rights denied.
