Welcome Stamp visitors feted by PM

Visitors now resident here under the Barbados Welcome Stamp visa programme have been declared Bajans by choice, living in one of the best places in the world.

That declaration by Prime Minister Mia Mottley was followed by loud cheers and applause from guests at a reception for the special visa holders at Ilaro Court on Wednesday evening.

The Prime Minister told them that they can be Bajan by birth, marriage, descent, or choice, and that “Bajans by choice tend to have the most passion, and we need a lot of passion now”.

In speaking to some of those approved under the programme and living here since August, the PM told them that the 12-month residency programme was conceived in July, after recognising that between March and the end of June short-term travel was going to be problematic for visitors to the island.

She noted that the priority in implementing the programme was to “put safety first, and then work everything else around that, so safe people, doing safe work in a safe country”. This equation, she said, is the guiding principle by which Government is managing the pandemic.

Mottley, sounding an optimistic note about the COVID-19 pandemic, said: “We live confident that 100 years ago, before there was all of the technology that we see now, that the world was able to fight off the Spanish flu, within two years.

“It must stand to reason that with the greater improvements in technology, and hopefully with a level of global leadership which is critical, that we will begin to put behind us, this most disruptive event.”

The Prime Minister encouraged those in attendance to use the opportunity while living here to build bridges, and reach out to individuals “to see how best you can make a difference not just to Barbados, but to your own lives and to the world in which we live”.

Mottley stressed that people, education, health care and safety were valued here. She assured the patrons that they, along with their children and extended family, would come to love Barbados and all that it valued.

Prime Minister Mottley also disclosed that early next year Government will introduce a bill to amend the Immigration Act in a bid to create a likely pathway for citizenship and residency but did not elaborate.

She said: “I hope that some of you will look at the Immigration Bill when it passes, as a promising opportunity for yourselves to continue to want to live here and persons with whom you do business.” (BT/BGIS)