Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has reiterated his confidence that the United Kingdom will reinstate its visa waiver agreement with Dominica.

The Dominica leader made this clear at a press conference earlier this week.

In July 2023, the UK announced its decision to revoke visa-free access to holders of Dominican passports citing security concerns stemming from Dominica’s Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programme.

At the time, UK Home Secretary Suella Braverman told the British Parliament: “Careful consideration of Dominica’s and Vanuatu’s operation of a citizenship by investment scheme has shown clear and evident abuse of the scheme, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the UK.”

However, on Monday Skerrit said he is confident that the UK will reconsider that decision.

e He “In regards to the UK and the visa issue, we continue to engage with the United Kingdom. We had meetings with them while in Grenada. We continue to engage them on a political level,” Skerrit said revealing that the matter had also been brought up with the UK foreign secretary.

“And I believe that eventually, we are confident that the visa waiver agreement that we had with the United Kingdom will be reinstated. We are very confident in that,” he remarked.

Skerrit considers the UK’s decision to end the visa agreement to be premature based on discussions the Dominica government was having with the UK at the time.   He said despite the decision which was taken in their best interest, Dominica continues to maintain excellent relations with the UK.

“We will continue to dialogue with them with a view to allaying any concerns which they may have and to have the visas reinstated with the United Kingdom,” Skerrit affirmed.

Furthermore, he noted that Dominica’s visa-free access to countries continues to increase, “but the UK Visa-free is important to Dominica and we will continue to pursue it with great vigour and determination,” he said.

Meantime Dominica continues to increase the number of countries its citizens can enter without a visa.