CARIBBEAN ROUNDUP
Bahamas
The Bahamas Ministry
of Foreign Affairs
recently suspended
issuing visas to Haitians
until further
notice.
In a short statement, the government
said this is due to “current technical
and other challenge,” but did not
elaborate.
The government said the suspension
does not include nationals who are officials,
diplomats or holders of a United
States, United Kingdom, Canadian or
Schengen visa.
The action comes days after Haiti’s
Minister of Foreign affairs, Bocchit
Edmond said a corruption probe
revealed “unacceptable situations” and
“wrongdoing” at Haiti’s local embassy.
However, The Bahamas Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Darren Henfield said
the suspension of visas was not connected
to that.
He said his ministry discovered
issues on its own after reviewing how
visas were issued.
The minister said he hopes the matter
can be resolved as quickly as possible.
The suspension may affect a large
number of people who wish to visit The
Bahamas.
Haitian officials arrived in July to
conduct an investigation into matters
at their embassy in the Bahamas.
The probe surrounds claim the
embassy was involved in getting visas
for Haitians and finding fake partners
for them to marry to gain status in the
Bahamas.
Barbados
Passengers arriving
at the Barbados Grantley
Adams International
Airport will no
longer be required to
fill out immigration / customs forms,
also known as ED forms, as of Sept. 1,
2019.According to Minister of Home
Affairs, Edmund Hinkson, starting
from this month, there will be a full
transition to the use of the 48 kiosks at
the airport.
He said the kiosk system has been
tested for almost a year to ensure that
the passenger information-gathering
system meets all the markers for Customs,
Immigration and Statistical
Services.
Hinkson also disclosed that Cabinet
has decided to put more questions in
the system.
“We are going to add some questions
to the kiosks that will still allow
for the acquisition of that information,”
he added.
He said that while speed of the process
may vary based on the size of the
Updated daily at www.caribbeanlifenews.com
A woman carries a girl in her arms after being evacuated from a nearby Cay due to the danger of fl oods arrive
on a ship at the port before the arrival of Hurricane Dorian in Sweeting’s Cay, Grand Bahama, Bahamas,
Saturday Aug. 31, 2019. Dorian bore down on the Bahamas as a fi erce Category 4 storm Saturday, with new
projections showing it curving upward enough to potentially spare Florida a direct hit but still threatening
parts of the Southeast U.S. with powerful winds and rising ocean water that causes what can be deadly fl ooding.
Associated Press / Ramon Espinosa
traveling party as well as an individual’s
technical proficiencies, the digital systems
have significantly cut down the
length it takes for passengers to get
through the airport.
Guyana
The Guyana government
says it is training
a number of teachers
with the “necessary
skills” to teach English
as a second language to children of
Venezuelan migrants fleeing the economic
and political situation in their
homeland.
A government statement said the
Ministry of Education is working with
the Office of the United Nations High
Commissioner (UNCHR) to develop
educational interventions, which will
improve the learning and communication
skills of those children and that
eight communities in the region are
expected to benefit from the initiative.
UNCHR representative on the Multi-
Stakeholder Committee, Cecile Guerrero
said a committee has been established
and tasked with monitoring the
Caribbean L 4 ife, Sept. 6, 2019 BQ
arrival of Venezuelan migrants into
Guyana.
The program is being conducted by a
Canadian-based facilitator.
So far, more than 800 children are
enrolled in schools in the country, after
their families left the country where
opposition forces are seeking to remove
President Nicholas Maduro.
Grenada
Irish telecommunication
giant, Digicel
with which the Grenada
government has
a contractual agreement,
is denying leaking any documents
showing the holders of all government
phones, their numbers and
the amounts owed.
Digicel Grenada Ltd. said in a statement,
“following weeks of thorough
internal investigations, Digicel Grenada
can safely conclude and publicly state
that the leak of the government’s bill
did not originate from within the operations
of Digicel Grenada Ltd.”
Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell
said he was embarrassed at the disclosure
and the government later indicated
the continued use of phones by the
assigned holders was due to a system
failure.
Jamaica
Jamaica has recorded
a total of more than
140 notifications of
dengue fever with the
island’s Chief Medical
Officer (CMO), Dr. Jacqueline Bisasor
McKenzie, saying the figure was significantly
higher than the same period
last year.
Speaking on a television program
Dr. McKenzie said the increased figure
could be attributed to the prevailing
drought conditions.
She said the number of suspected
dengue cases recorded for three of
the last five years had been “above
the monthly figures” and comparing
this year to last year it has been way
above.
The CMO said the Ministry of Health
had been receiving more reports,
describing them “as the tip of the ice-
Continued on Page 36
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