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Former Prime Minister's US Visa Revoked
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- Published on Tuesday, 10 March 2015 10:35
- Written by Ken Richards
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St Kitts and Nevis (WINN): No official confirmation yet from the Team Unity administration, but sources close to the government have supported reports on social media and elsewhere that the US visa of then prime minister Denzil Douglas was revoked by the Americans one week before the February 16 general elections.
The reason identified – because of the then government's non-compliance with US advisories on the federation's economic citizenship programme.
Several attempts Monday to contact top government officials about the matter failed, and Dr Douglas himself could not be reached for comment.
The Americans are quoted as saying that the timing of the revoking of the visa was not done to deliberately coincide with the election campaign, but was the result of a gradual process.
With a new government firmly in place after the national poll, the suggestion is that the new administration only became aware of the visa being revoked during talks with American officials.
The impression given is that the Timothy Harris-led government was left in the dark about this and other matters apparently because government files went missing or were misplaced during the transition between the old and new administrations.
A recent advisory is also reported to have been issued against the citizenship programme, as a follow up to the one issued in May of last year.
The US is reported to have expressed further concerns about the CIP.
The government has said that it is making foreign affairs and the revamping of the economic citizenship programme a key priority.
Prime Minister Harris has already held talks with US officials on these and other matters.
In May of 2014 the United States Treasury Department warned financial institutions to be on the lookout for "certain foreign individuals" abusing the federation's Citizenship by Investment (CIP) programme.
The advisory issued by the Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) said those individuals were seeking to obtain St Kitts-Nevis passports under the programme "for the purpose of engaging in illicit financial activity".
When Canadian officials announced late last year that they were revoking the visa waiver that holders of St Kitts and Nevis passports had enjoyed, the then opposition also blamed the development on the alleged mismanagement of the economic citizenship programme by the Douglas administration.
**UPDATED**
Meanwhile in a statement reported to have come from former prime minister Douglas, he is quoted as saying that he understands that PM Harris and Foreign Minister Mark Brantley have revoked the diplomatic passports issued to former ministers of the Labour Administration.
According to the statement that's been done even though on assuming office they met in place a policy of former Heads of State and Government and others continuing to hold diplomatic passports.
The statement says in this circumstance where a visa was issued in the diplomatic passport which has been recalled/cancelled, "we've been advised that we need to apply for new visas in our regular passports".
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