Carisa Lee

Re­porter

carisa.lee@cnc3.co.tt

Min­is­ter of For­eign and Cari­com Af­fairs Sean Sobers be­lieves he can get the Unit­ed King­dom gov­ern­ment to ease its visa re­quire­ments for Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als, as he says a sol­id so­lu­tion has been found.

On March 12, the UK gov­ern­ment an­nounced that all na­tion­als of T&T will re­quire a visa to en­ter that coun­try, in­clud­ing for short vis­its.

The de­ci­sion came in re­sponse to what the UK gov­ern­ment de­scribed as a “sig­nif­i­cant in­crease” in T&T na­tion­als ar­riv­ing as vis­i­tors and then seek­ing asy­lum.

In a phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia on Sun­day, Sobers said a so­lu­tion has been found and he in­tends to present it to the Cab­i­net this week.

“That may be as ear­ly as Thurs­day, bar­ring any hic­cups,” he said.

He ex­plained that of­fi­cials need­ed to work out the min­istry’s pol­i­cy po­si­tion be­fore pre­sent­ing the note to the Cab­i­net.

“I think I can get them (UK) to ease the re­stric­tions,” he said.

Sobers said the UK gov­ern­ment con­tact­ed the min­istry on three sep­a­rate oc­ca­sions, in­di­cat­ing its is­sues and even­tu­al­ly im­ple­ment­ing the visa re­quire­ment.

Mean­while, as of yes­ter­day, na­tion­als of T&T were re­quired to ob­tain a visa be­fore trav­el­ling to Ire­land.

Ac­cord­ing to its lat­est up­date on the Irish Im­mi­gra­tion Ser­vice web­site, a tran­sit visa will al­so be re­quired if per­sons in­tend to tran­sit through Ire­land en route to an­oth­er des­ti­na­tion.

Sobers, who re­vealed that he learned about the re­quire­ment on Sat­ur­day evening, said he has in­struct­ed his per­ma­nent sec­re­tary to pro­vide/pre­pare a brief on the sit­u­a­tion.

“I would have them be in an in­formed po­si­tion to be ad­vised as to the next steps for­ward,” he said.

Sobers want­ed cit­i­zens to know that there was no need to wor­ry.

Ac­cord­ing to the up­date, na­tion­als of T&T who made trav­el plans be­fore May 12 can pro­vide ev­i­dence of a valid book­ing and pay­ment for the trip, and may be ac­com­mo­dat­ed for emer­gency trav­el for med­ical is­sues, sig­nif­i­cant fam­i­ly events, ed­u­ca­tion, em­ploy­ment and busi­ness, where the sched­uled trav­el is on or be­fore May 31, 2025.