Basseterre, St.Kitts (TUCOM-Jan 10th ):-Team Unity’s Leader, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris is calling on the outgoing Douglas regime to “stop the reputational damage to our beloved country by its disastrous leadership and management of the Citizenship By Investment Programme (CBI).” Responding to recent media reports on ABC News that the Government of the United States of America had sanctioned several nationals of Afghanistan and Iran bearing St Kitts and Nevis passports. Team Unity’s Leader said, “this government has been the most callous and irresponsible in our modern history that is why it continues to sell our passports without accountability and transparency. That explains why our passports continue to end up in the hands of illicit actors, fraudsters and gangsters. This administration has seemingly gone rogue, and bandits and criminals seem to be having a happy hour at the expense of the good name and standing of our country.”
We have an advisory imposed upon us by the Treasury Department of the United States of America, as a result of the deception and improprieties of the government and lack of effective controls in our Citizenship By Investment Programme (CBI). On the 22nd November 2014, the Canadian government removed holders of St Kitts and Nevis passports from that prestigious list of countries that hitherto had visa free access to Canada.
The Douglas administration has not remedied the problems in the CBI that have caused us to be blacklisted. Our programme continues to be a security concern to law abiding countries everywhere. Concerned citizens have been calling on the government to name the economic citizens of St Kitts and Nevis who were subjected to the recent sanctions by the U.S. government.
The government needs to tell us on what basis these persons were able to receive St Kitts and Nevis passports? How many of our passports issued over last 18 months are in the hands of Iranians, and Afghans? How many are in the hands of illicit actors and what will it do to retrieve them? We also need to know how many holders of our passports issued without the country of origin field, have responded to the recall and how many passports have been replaced as a consequence of the recall?