Home »

Haiti not exempt from visa for Cricket World Cup 2007

GEORGETOWN, Guyana - Haiti is the lone Caribbean Community (Caricom) nation not exempt from a common visa for cricket fans to travel in the region for the 2007 Cricket World Cup, officials said on Wednesday.

Barbados Deputy Prime Minister Mia Mottley said citizens of other Caricom member nations and associate member states do not need visas to travel to the nine match-host countries and Dominica between January 15 and May 15, 2007.

?Haiti is only now coming back into the community as a full number... and it is in that context that the arrangements are not yet at a stage that allow the heads of government to take decisions in this matter without compromising the other issues before them,? Mottley said during a Caricom meeting here.

Following democratic elections earlier this year, Haiti was represented at last July?s Caricom summit for the first time in almost two years following the exile of Jean Bertrand Aristide.

Caricom officials agreed that citizens of several other nations - Germany, Canada, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Africa, Spain, Netherlands, United States and the United Kingdom do not need visas to enter the region for the World Cup to help boost the tourism industry in several Caricom countries.

?We have tried in the choice of the territories that do not need visas to take into account economic considerations of our respective territories,? she said.

?The majority of these territories still rely on tourism as their primary foreign exchange earner and many of the countries which I referred to as being exempt visas are in fact the major countries from which our tourists come within the Caribbean Community and in another instance have been the ones responsible for significant investments within the region.?

Non-citizens of Caricom nations who enjoy residency status or have student visas or work permits from a Caricom member nation would also be allowed to travel freely in the 10 Cup host countries, she added.

Caricom has agreed that from next month, Jamaica would issue Caricom visas in the US and Canada, Trinidad would issue visas in New Delhi and Sydney as well as Barbados in London for several nations.

US Secretary for Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff late last month agreed to provide its Advanced Passenger Information System to Caricom so the names of passengers aboard aircraft and vessels would be submitted before their arrival to determine whether they are security threats and should not be allowed to enter the nation of their destination.