Recently, UK’s Home Secretary and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs have announced the launch of the nation’s first global review of visa regimes for Eastern Caribbean countries. As per the regime, seven Eastern Caribbean countries, which currently enjoy visa free status when it comes travel the UK, may require to obtain visas for the same purpose in the coming days.

The countries include, Barbados, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent, and Grenada. The residents of all these countries may need to get visas in order to visit the UK. The UK government is likely to implement the visa requirements for these countries to curb illegal immigration and crime, thereby ensuring security within the nation.

The UK government’s keenness of implementing visa requirements for the Eastern Caribbean countries is a result of a Visa Waiver Test, conducted on April 1. Instead of considering the Eastern Caribbean states as a region, the test was conducted to examine the countries one by one. As a result, UK government noticed major concerns related to illegal immigration, security and crime mainly with two countries- St. Lucia and Dominica.

UK has always maintained a very close and friendly relationship with both Saint Lucia and Dominica, but the former believes that introduction of new visa requirements is a significant measure. UK has decided to give the respective governments of the two countries a six-month period to address the concerns evaluated by the UK government.