Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said on Monday, in an interview with the API, that he saw the CBI crackdown on Dominica, whose citizens now require a visa for UK travel, coming.
Gonsalves said he had long advocated against St. Vincent joining the CBI train, as he knew based on what was happening in Europe with the golden passport scheme that it was only a matter of time.
The UK is now expected to remove visa-free access for Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and Grenada before the end of 2023.
“Those who didn’t see it and who wanted to base an economic strategy on that, like the opposition in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, now get their comeuppance. You see how much your judgment came to bear when I said this thing is not sustainable; you can’t base your economic development on this. You can’t finance your budget on these kinds of money”.
“The question of people telling me that you can check to see who these individuals are and so on, you don’t have the machinery to do it, and the volume you have to do to make money off of it, you’re going to run into difficulties, and this thing was just a matter of time”.
Gonsalves stated that not only the British but also the European Union are planning on removing these OECS countries from the Schengen Visa Waiver program.
“The EU Commission had a meeting with those same governments within the OECS, and they told them, Look, we have come to tell you that it’s not a matter of this thing may happen; it is happening. It is only when we are going to bring down the hammer, and the hammer is coming down shortly.”
“They will remove the Schengen Visa waiver for these countries. In fact, one prime Minister who attended that meeting told me It’s the end of the road”.
The Schengen visa area includes the 27 countries of the European Union.
