15th
September 2012
CANADA’S
VISA IMPOSITION
Micah G. George
The decision
by the Government of Canada to impose visas
on Saint Lucians wishing to travel to Canada
is creating quite a stir here, as both the government
and the main opposition party, the United Workers
Party, are sounding off on the issue.
The Canadian
government’s decision came into effect
Tuesday of this week. The Canadian government
cited the unreliability of travel documents
coming from Saint Lucians as a key reason for
imposing the visa requirements on Saint Lucians.
They are of
the view that criminals from Saint Lucia can
change their names and acquire new passports
and in some instances Saint Lucians who were
removed from Canada as security risks later
returned using different passports.
The Canadian
government further claimed that there has been
an unacceptably high number of asylum claims
from Saint Lucia over the past five years.
The VOICE called
the Canadian High Commission in Port-of-Spain,
Trinidad yesterday and was given an email address
in which to direct questions to Canada’s
immigration department. Although The VOICE was
unable to speak to an official there it learned
that about 1.5 percent of the Saint Lucian population
had made asylum claims in Canada, an amount
the Canadian Government considers as unacceptably
high.
The Government
of Saint Lucia Thursday expressed its disappointment
and dismay at the decision of the Government
of Canada.
The Government
of Saint Lucia, in a statement said that it
“deeply regrets that the Canadian Government
did not give it an opportunity to address the
concerns regarding the claims of “unreliable
travel documents” allegedly held by some
Saint Lucians”.
The VOICE has
discovered that Saint Lucia was notified, months
ago of an effort by the Canadian Government
to get the Saint Lucian Government to reduce
the amount of people filing asylum claims in
Canada. This immigration violation outside Saint
Lucia is not something the Government of Saint
Lucia is not aware of.
The Government
of Saint Lucia promised to release a full statement
on the decision by the Canadian Government subsequent
to a receipt from the Canadian Government conveying
its decision.
The Canadian
Government’s concerns about the unreliability
of Saint Lucians travel documents and the high
number of asylum seekers from Saint Lucia are
not recent concerns.
Former Prime
Minister Stephenson King during his tenure in
office was made aware of the problems by the
Canadian Government.
King, during
an interview with HTS NewsForce this week, noted
that the present government should have known
of the visa imposition before it was announced
Tuesday.
“Protocol
calls for the authorities to engage each other.
So once there are concerns brought forward the
authorities would have consulted with our consul
general in Toronto and by extension the Ministry
of External Affairs. Most times the representative
for the region would have come to Saint Lucia
and meet with the Prime Minister, Ministers
of External Affairs, Home Affairs and other
officials on those issue,” King said on
the HTS NewsForce Programme earlier this week.
The writing
was on the wall for Saint Lucians for a very
long time. Both the former administration and
the present one either ignored these warnings
until too late, or failed to move speedily enough
to handle the situation. Always present was
the possibility of the asylum situation jeopardizing
relations between Saint Lucia and Canada.
Canada’s
official notification to the St. Lucia Government
appears below:
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