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Chuck pledges visa-free travel inside a decade

Published:Monday | November 11, 2019 | 12:28 AM
Chuck
Chuck

Amid speculation over the visa revocations of two senior parliamentarians, Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has blamed the People’s National Party (PNP) for the country’s travel troubles.

Chuck, member of parliament for North East St Andrew, promised that economic advances under the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) would eliminate the deterrents to visa-free travel within a decade.

“Sink it into the PNP heads that under this Andrew Holness Government, we are achieving and we have more to achieve,” Chuck said at a JLP Area Council 1 meeting at Mona High School yesterday, mentioning that over the next seven years, the Government wants to build more than 20,000 houses per year.

“We want every single Jamaican to have shelter over their heads to live in a way that they can be happy and proud of, so people can live and have a title, so that they can pass on to their children. And when that happen, you know, all the Americans will say, ‘You don’t need visas to come America.’

“We soon get rid of visa because other countries of the world will say, ‘You are so strong, you don’t need visa.’ That’s what happen to countries who are doing well.”

Chuck said citizens of countries such as Singapore hardly ever require visas for travel.

“Under PNP government, you need visa, you need pass card everywhere you want to go. Under PNP government, you need visa to go to Curaçao, England, Cayman, Bahamas, and Bermuda. But under JLP government, in the next term or the term after that, we are going to be so strong that all of these visa things will be wiped away,” Chuck said to loud applause.

He told the Labourites that formal housing offered them “ties to Jamaica, and because you have ties to Jamaica, dem nuh need to give you visa; you coming back home”.

romario.scott@gleanerjm.com