By: Staff Writer
October 27, 2023
The European Union has called for a “suspension mechanism” for all countries in the Caribbean that offer Citizenship by Investment programmes.
The so-called “suspension mechanism” announced on Wednesday, proposes to let EU states temporarily suspend visa-free travel for a particular country “in case of a sudden and substantial increase in irregular migration or security risks.”
The proposals, which are made in the sixth report under the Visa Suspension Mechanism, are:
- Expand the grounds for suspension, to include non-EU countries that are not fully aligned with the EU’s visa policy and visa-free non-EU countries operating investor citizenship schemes;
- Increase the duration of the procedure to allow more time for remedial actions. A new urgency procedure is introduced to react faster in case of sudden challenges to the visa-free regime
- Strengthen the Commission’s monitoring and reporting obligations to any visa-free countries where challenges are identified
In the report, the EU expressed concerns about the high number of passports sold by Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis and Saint Lucia
The EU wants an overhaul of the entire CBI in the Caribbean. In their recent investigations it is reported that just five Caribbean states had sold 88,000 passports between them. Of those, tiny Dominica had sold 34,500. Some of these passports are linked to Russian oligarchs and criminals evading arrests in various parts of the world.
The EU is also concerned about the programmes which have a low rejection rate of between three and six per cent and short processing time of at least two months. They are also some of the cheapest golden passport programs in the world with a minimum investment of US$100,000.
The announcement follows publication of Dominica: Passports of the Caribbean, an investigation by the Guardian, UK and other media organisations in partnership with the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which examined Dominica’s citizenship by investment scheme in unprecedented detail.
The Guardian reports that the sale of passports in Dominica surged after 2015 when citizens of a number of Caribbean states were given permission to travel to most EU member states for 90 days a year without a visa. St Kitts reached agreement on visa-free travel with the EU in 2009. Overall, the EU has visa-free travel agreements with 60 countries.
Speaking Thursday, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said certain nations are selling passports “quite cheaply to people that are security risks or potential security risks to the EU.”