{"id":329362,"date":"2024-09-24T13:13:22","date_gmt":"2024-09-24T17:13:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/?p=329362"},"modified":"2024-09-24T13:13:22","modified_gmt":"2024-09-24T17:13:22","slug":"st-lucia-opposition-leader-says-dominica-has-become-laughing-stock-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/st-lucia-opposition-leader-says-dominica-has-become-laughing-stock-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"St Lucia opposition leader says Dominica has become laughing stock of the world"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Allen Chastanet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St Lucia’s opposition leader, Allen Chastanet, has said Dominica has become the laughing stock of the world because of its Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program.<\/p>\n

He was addressing a public meeting of his United Workers Party (UWP) on Sunday and made his comment against the background of Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, appearing as a guest on a St Lucia Labour Party-affiliated radio show where he discussed Dominica’s CBI. Like Dominica, St Lucia has its own CBI program.<\/p>\n

According to Chastanet, what is going on in CBI programs is what he described as “blatant corruption.”<\/p>\n

“Let us not mistake what is taking place with CBI, blatant corruption,” he remarked. “And can you imagine that a sitting prime minister of Dominica, a country that has lost its visas to England, has lost its visas to Ireland, that has become a laughing stock in the world would find himself on Richard Frederick’s show?”<\/p>\n

Chastanet referred to the old saying that ‘birds of a feather flock together’.<\/p>\n

“A picture paints a thousand words but tell Skerrit, I will tell Skerrit the same thing Sir John Compton told Ralph Gonsalves in 2006 when Ralph came to St Lucia and insulted Sir John and he said to Ralph, ‘remember I might be the next prime minister of St Lucia’,” he remarked.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the British government decided that Dominica passport holders need a visa to travel to and transit the United Kingdom because of concerns over the island\u2019s CBI program<\/a>. It said there was clear and evident abuse of the program, including the granting of citizenship to individuals known to pose a risk to the UK.<\/p>\n

In March this year, Ireland did the same with the Irish government saying the move was to bring Ireland into closer alignment with the visa regime in the United Kingdom and the Schengen area.<\/p>\n

Chastanet has historically criticized the handling of St Lucia’s CBI program by the ruling St Lucia Labour Party (SLP).<\/p>\n

“We, as a party are sounding the alarm for almost two years since government and the prime minister, in particular, changed the rules governing the Economic Fund to allow Cabinet to use CIP [St Lucia’s citizenship by Investment program] monies freely, and due to those damning decisions, to continue accepting Russian and Iranian applications at the commencement of the Ukraine War in spite of international concerns,” he said in a press statement in April this year.<\/p>\n

He also claimed that St. Lucia’s SLP government had launched a new secret infrastructure option under the country’s CBI and the people of St Lucia were not informed about it.<\/p>\n

According to Chastanet, the new option “will allow certain approved developers to undertake infrastructure projects for the government and to reimburse themselves by selling our citizenship for US$100,000 and receiving the funds themselves.”<\/p>\n

At Sunday’s meeting, Chastanet said he was brought into a conversation with Grenada, Dominica, and St Kitts “and we all intend to file a class action so we can recover the money that you have lost.”<\/p>\n

However, he did not elaborate on the nature of the suit, when it will be filed, or where it will be filed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St Lucia’s opposition leader, Allen Chastanet, has said Dominica has become the laughing stock of the world because of its Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program. He was addressing a public meeting of his United Workers Party (UWP) on Sunday and…","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":329366,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_cbd_carousel_blocks":"[]","footnotes":""},"categories":[235,9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-329362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homepage-carousel","category-news","category-regional"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSt Lucia opposition leader says Dominica has become laughing stock of the world - Dominica News Online<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dominicanewsonline.com\/news\/homepage\/news\/st-lucia-opposition-leader-says-dominica-has-become-laughing-stock-of-the-world\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St Lucia opposition leader says Dominica has become laughing stock of the world - Dominica News Online\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"St Lucia’s opposition leader, Allen Chastanet, has said Dominica has become the laughing stock of the world because of its Citizenship by Investment (CBI) program. 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