CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC – The St. Lucia government is defending the Citizenship by Investment Programme (CBI), dismissing suggestions that it played a significant role in the United Kingdom’s decision for St. Lucians to obtain a visa before visiting or transiting the European country.
In a statement to Parliament, Tourism, Investment, Creative Industries, Culture, and Information Minister, Dr. Ernest Hilaire, said that the island has had a long relationship with the United Kingdom, shaped by a complicated colonial history, constitutional ties, and institutional connections.
“It has been our long-standing expectation that our dealings with each other would be guided by trust, reliability, and fairness. After all, we are constitutional realms sharing the same monarch,” he told legislators.
Hilaire said that Britain’s King Charles is the King of St. Lucia, and “one wonders what King Charles II would think that his loyal subjects here in St. Lucia can no longer visit the UK to see where he lives at Buckingham Palace, as his loyal subjects in the UK have now required visas for us to visit.
“And may I tease you, Mr. Speaker, and ask what your reaction would be if King Charles requested to sit at the next opening of parliament and deliver the throne speech, as he is, after all, the actual head of state.
“Surely we will have to welcome him as we do thousands of other Britons who visit our shores each year. But that’s another chapter in our history to be told in the months and years to come.
“Mr. Speaker, I want to make it clear from the outset that I fully respect the sovereign right of the government of the United Kingdom to protect its borders and to determine its own visa policy.”
He said these are matters for the UK government, especially since St. Lucia had been informed that, since 2022, 342 persons from the island have sought asylum out of 106,000.
Last week, London said that St. Lucian travellers would require a transit visa for transiting through the United Kingdom to another destination. The new measures go into effect immediately.
According to the March 4, 2026 correspondence from the UK Home Office, the decision was taken as part of the United Kingdom’s broader efforts to strengthen border management and respond to pressures within its immigration and asylum systems.
London said that there has been a “notable increase in St. Lucian nationals entering the UK as visitors and subsequently claiming asylum, which it says has placed pressure on its border and asylum processes”.
The UK authorities have also advised that a six-week transition period will be in place until April 16, 2026, during which St. Lucian nationals who already possess an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) and have booked travel before the policy change may continue to enter the United Kingdom visa-free if they arrive before the end of the transition window.
Hilaire acknowledged that immigration is a serious issue, and that every country has a right to defend its laws and borders, and that St. Lucia must respect that.
“Further, I fully support the close working relationship that existed in ensuring that our Citizenship by Investment programme “possesses no threat to the national security of our international partners”.
But Hilaire said that respect for that sovereign right does not mean silence “when the manner in which a decision is taken causes real concern, real disappointment and real damage to the spirit in which our relationship has been managed and that is the issue before us today”.
He said he has had to stand in Parliament “in the public interest to account for and clarify matters” relating to the CBI, under which foreign investors are granted citizenship of the island in return for making a substantial investment in St. Lucia’s socio-economic development.
He said that the action taken by the United Kingdom government has been widely and wrongly interpreted as a judgment on St. Lucia’s CBI programme, adding that the “wording used by the UK Home Office in its statement speaks of the number of St. Lucians who have applied for asylum or are working illegally in the United Kingdom.
“It does not differentiate between those who were natural-born citizens or CBI citizens. The explanatory note outlines the significant growth in our CBI. It ends by saying that the spike in asylum claims coincides with that increase,” Hilaire said, adding that he can understand why some would believe that the two are linked, “that it is the CIP that is causing the increase in asylum seekers and illegal workers.
“Some would genuinely establish that causal link, and others would put out words of political malice, accentuating the words of the Home Office, who serve their political purpose. Mr. Speaker, I say to this Honourable House that it is wrong to leave the impression that St. Lucia’s CBI is responsible for this problem when, to date, the data needed to establish that claim has not been shared with us.
“On the contrary, we have been assured that the CBI is not the driver of the decision taken by the United Kingdom,” Hilaire told legislators, saying that ever since discussions began with the international partners, St. Lucia has been consistent.
“We have asked repeatedly for the relevant information on any concerns with the CBI. We have said that if CBI citizens are using solution passports to claim asylum or to work illegally in the United Kingdom, then please share the data with us. Tell us how many. Tell us where they are originally from. Tell us who they are. Give us the information necessary to act.
“That has been our position throughout, because no responsible government can fix a problem that is not properly placed before it. No responsible government can be expected to respond with precision without access to the information required to do so.
“We have been told repeatedly that such data cannot be shared. And so the obvious question remains: how is any government expected to respond effectively to any abuse if the evidence is not available to address it? And again, I want to make that point. There’s no evidence to suggest that our CBI is responsible for any increase in persons seeking asylum or working illegally in the United Kingdom.”
Hilaire, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, said that it has happened before that, having identified a potential area of concern, St. Lucia has acted, noting, “when we became aware that action taken elsewhere in the region against certain applicants may have been linked to part of that problem, we moved immediately and removed bad applications from these nationals.
“That is what responsible government looks like. It does not grandstand on social media or talk shows. It does not gossip. It does not speculate. It acts.
“It is therefore especially bewildering that this visa action has been taken at a time and been used by the opposition when we are in fact involved in active engagement on various aspects of the CBI and meetings are being planned with our international partners to discuss what more can be done to halt any abuse of the visa-free system.”
Hilaire insists that the Phillip J Pierre government is doing all it can to deal with the current situation, saying, “We will not be daunted.
“We will continue to work with all international partners to strengthen our programme and ensure that it is not a threat to anyone and remains a benefit to us.”
He said that, with a visa regime in place, the decision to allow any St. Lucian passport holder into the United Kingdom rests solely with the United Kingdom’s authorities.
Mr. Speaker, I would have thought that if the CBI citizens were the problem, then the visa requirement would have been implemented only for persons who acquired citizenship through the CBI.
“But that’s not a decision for us to make,” he said, criticising those “in this country who seem determined to weaken public confidence in one of the very instruments helping us to build a stronger St. Lucia.
“Let us be honest, CBI is not some political gimmick. It is not a vanity project. It is not and has
never been an end in itself. It is a developmental tool. It is one of the means by which a small island developing state like ours can fund roads, hospitals, schools, water security, jobs, climate resilience, and a wider national development.
“In an era when traditional sources of development finance are shrinking, and global pressures are growing, no country is providing the grants we need. No country is providing the concessionary loans that we need. No country is building the infrastructure that we need in this country of ours,” Hilaire added.
“We will continue to engage international partners seriously and responsibly. We will continue to strengthen and improve the Citizenship by Investment programme. We will continue to insist on fair facts and proper cooperation. We will continue to use every legitimate tool available to build roads, expand healthcare, improve water infrastructure, create jobs, raise incomes, and widen opportunities for the people of this country.
“That is our duty. That is our focus. That is the difference between this side and the other side. We are building St. Lucia,” Hilaire added.
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