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CARICOM Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington. Keril Wright, Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
CARICOM IS concerned about the policy of member countries issuing visa restrictions against other member countries, including Jamaica.
Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington, said yesterday that he would be meeting with Anguilla to settle the issue of its recent visa restrictions against Jamaica and Guyana.
Carrington, who arrived in Montego Bay yesterday for the City's Chamber of Commerce's 70th annual awards banquet today, said this could not be tolerated, as it was not in the spirit of the community.
"No CARICOM country is authorised to impose visa restrictions against other CARICOM nationals and countries," he said at yesterday's press conference.
"I know one associate member state, Anguilla, has introduced visa requirements for nationals from Jamaica and Guyana. We do not know why, we do not understand it."
Carrington said he had been mandated by the heads to go to Anguilla, sit with them and find out what the problem is and how best to treat it.
"Using visa is not the way within a community, a community is the co-mingling of peoples where, if you use visas, you are going against the spirit of the community," he told reporters, shortly after his arrival at the Sangster International Airport.
Mr. Carrington explained yesterday that a planned meeting with Anguilla's Chief Minister fell through, but he anticipated they would be able to meet and clarify the issue in a month's time.
"I was hoping that the Chief Minister would have come to Guyana for the last meeting which ended last Friday. Unfortunately, he didn't turn up for the meeting," he said. "I wouldn't think a month would pass," he answered in response to queries as to when they would meet.
He noted that Suriname, a former Dutch country, had a similar problem when they became a part of CARICOM.
"They had visa requirements against all the other members, they had to remove it. We hope that we will get this straightened out very soon," he said.
Carrington added yesterday that the visa imposition would not affect Anguilla's status, if they sought full CARICOM membership. He added that many countries were now seeking to settle their member status with CARICOM.
Anguilla announced in April that nationals from Jamaica and Guyana would require visas to travel to the island. The reason given by the Anguillan government was that the country's economy and social infrastructure could no longer support the influx of Jamaican and Guyanese travellers, who came to the island seeking jobs and permanent residency status.
Curacao and Aruba have also imposed visa restrictions on Jamaicans.
