PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Trinidad and Tobago government has confirmed that several nationals who had travelled to the United Kingdom seeking asylum had been sent back to Port of Spain in recent months.
Foreign and CARICOM Affairs Minister Sean Sobers told the Trinidad Express newspaper that between 90 and 97 per cent of the 700-plus nationals who had sought asylum had been returned to Trinidad in the last couple of months.
On March 12 last year, the United Kingdom government announced that all Trinidad and Tobago nationals would require a visa to enter the UK, including for short visits.
The decision came in response to what London described as a “significant increase” in nationals arriving as visitors and then claiming asylum. Between 2023 and 2024, 797 asylum applications were filed by Trinidad and Tobago nationals.
Earlier this month, the St. Lucia government said it was holding talks with United Kingdom officials after the island was notified that St. Lucian travellers would require a visa to enter the European country. In addition, a transit visa for transiting through the United Kingdom to another destination would also be required.
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”.
On March 5 this year, the UK Home Office said that “thousands” had abused legal routes into the UK to claim asylum.
“By introducing visit visas for tourists from Jordan, Colombia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Botswana, over 6,000 people were prevented from making claims. Nicaraguans and St Lucians will now also require visit visas.”
Sobers said the visa issue was raised at the UK-Caribbean Forum, where the Trinidad and Tobago delegation met with the UK’s Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Migration and Citizenship, Michael Tapp.
He told the newspaper that the number of people seeking asylum “had dropped drastically” since the visa system was introduced last year and that “the visas are working”.
He told the Express that Trinidad and Tobago has not had to cover any expenses for repatriation, saying, “At this point, no, that is something that they have asked us to consider. Obviously, that is a decision the Cabinet has to make.”
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