Scrap CIP or lose visa-free access to Europe, Antigua and other CIP countries told

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Prime Minister Gaston Browne says Antigua and Barbuda has and other countries selling citizenship have been given an ultimatum.

He says the European Union has asked these countries to end their Citizenship by Investment Programme or face visa restrictions.

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64 COMMENTS

    • Are you forgetting we are talking about the World Boss. Anyway, I completely agree with you that the letter will have absolutely no effect.

  1. The first world has decided that CIP is to end. Your letter will not do anything. They will not even read it. Do the right thing and end CIP so that we can keep the European free travel without a visa. If you refuse to end CIP and our visa free travel is withdrawn and we still lose CIP because nobody wants our passports, you Gaston Browne will Have stabbed all Antiguans and Barbudans in the back. Do the right thing for once. End CIP.

  2. You all know how arrogant Gaston is. He will write to EU and demand they continue visa free travel regardless and he will refuse to end CIP. We will then lose visa free travel to the EU and our passports will be useless. We will be like Africa and India. Cannot travel out of Antigua without 100 different visas. Members of Cabinet, please do the right thing and end CIP. Please do not make our passports worthless.

    • For people saying end CIP. America has a CIP program for decades now. There was no problem.

      As we poor nations jump on that wagon wheels fall off.

      Bigger countries will flog the horse dead and by the time we get to it, is leftovers.

      • Yes, we are weak and nothing we can do about it. Maybe we should join pact with Russia and fight western aggression. They killed our offshore banking industry, our gaming industry and now they coming after our CIP program. I guest we were meant to be slaves for life.

        • Everytime I see people from a country where freedom is rife want to “join with Russia to fight Western agression” I cringe. Do you know currently any reporter or news agency report “the TRUTH” face upwards of 15 years in prison? If they report anything contrary to the Russian government, they face jail time. Do you really want to live in a country where the ruler poison, jails, and kills opposition voices? Anyways, I’ll say this. Antigua is a small country and our leaders do not have the security details these big dictatorships do. With that said, ANY leader in Antigua that tries to move us towards dictatorship, I WILL PERSONALLY TAKE ONE FOR THE COUNTRY.

          PS: The ultimatum was from the UN, not the US.

          • You are naive to think that the west doesn’t try to control the narrative. Have contrary views to the American and western line and see whether you are not kicked off Facebook, Twitter and other social media. You will be banned from all western networks. What we need in the world is the respect for all humanity and not for nations with their bombs and nuclear weapons using their power to dictate to the weaker nations. It shouldn’t be if I do it, it is right and if you do it, it is wrong.
            What is truth in most cases is your truth.

        • You are now talking facts my bro and our kissing butt ministers have no balls it is the plantations all over again!!! cause all their education is continue the Slave trade.😂😂😂

      • Americans have visa free travel everywhere. We do not and not ending CIP will only make it much harder for us to travel. If Europe does impose visas on us because we refuse to end CIP, CIP will die on its own anyway as our passports will be useless, so why not just end it now and keep the visa free travel to Europe? Seems like an obvious decision to me.

        • Yet we have many rich Americans renouncing their US citizenship (for the first half of 2020, it was 5,315 persons) and getting citizenship in countries like ANU( for the same period in anu, US successful applicants were some 3% of persons getting CIP in ANU, 3 times more than eg India, Saudi Arabia)

        • @ Braxton: Americans do not have Visa Free Travel everywhere. There are Countries where American Citizens would need a Visitor’s Visa to enter.

      • America van do things Antigua cannot. Get over it. We have to do deal with our situation can’t complain that “but other people do the same thing…”

  3. Please end the CIP program. The country make enough money from it and you you dont want Europe to end Visa free access. Try IT, Improve tourism, try agriculture on a national scale instead

    • We should all be outraged by this. This greedy, moronic megalomaniac continues to run our country into the ground and now he is throwing our passports in the gutter. For what? For a scheme (appropriate word choice if ever there was one) that ultimately benefits his and his minions’ pockets. It is IMPERATIVE that we keep our access to the wider world and make a fucking scene about this. Remember, Antiguans, these people WORK FOR US. Not the other way around.

    • But everything the islands try those want to kill it. We had our banana Clinton end the preferred treatment and tell us we have to compete with Chikita, when you go in tourism they putting travel advisory on your ass, when you go in casino they say you doh have right to take America money.

      I not saying the cip programme corrupt eh but they trying to kill it and they still have their us visa lottery going on

      • That is why we need to eventually stand up to them. They are evil and want to enslaved use for life . Every time we try to make a little money, these western countries always blocked it .Putin, I understand why you have to invade Ukraine. Because if Ukraine becomes a member of NATO it will be the end of Russian anyways. Alot of people don’t understand this. F–k western emperialism.

      • Then when they face the negatives of globalism, they then cry and turn isolationists. Its only fair when they are winning. Look they lose WTO cases and over a decade later, they are yet to compensate us

  4. We should all be outraged by this. This greedy, moronic megalomaniac continues to run our country into the ground and now he is throwing our passports in the gutter. For what? For a scheme (appropriate word choice if ever there was one) that ultimately benefits his and his minions’ pockets. It is IMPERATIVE that we keep our access to the wider world and make a scene about this. Remember, Antiguans, these people WORK FOR US. Not the other way around.

  5. What’s the PM beefing about? Antigua passports couldn’t even get Antiguan nationals back into Antigua if unjabbed. He trashed his own people and citizenship for $$$ what else could he expect.

  6. We will all lose if the Schengen visa free travel is withdrawn and CIP will still die a natural death as a result. We will be without CIP and without the EU visa free travel. We can still save EU visa free travel. We cannot save CIP. Do not wait until the Schengen visa is withdrawn. Take steps now to end CIP so this does not happen. END CIP.

  7. I knew this would have happened. From the time Canada stopped our Visa free access you should have known that Europe and the US would soon follow. Where all the CIP money gone? They claim they made $2 billion dollars from it right? Yet we borrowing money left right and center from China. There needs to be a forensic audit of the CIP money.

  8. Just a moment.
    The UK Govt was recently outed as operating a CIP scheme for the ultra wealthy, many were oligarchs, £2million + invested in property buys UK citizenship I think.
    Some European countries do similarly, Malta is in the top 5 of sought after CIP countries.

    For a long time BIG countries have tried any number of mechanisms financially, and now right of entry threats, to try and stop SIDS from operating the self-same CIP they’ve quietly been operating, and that they want 100% of the $$$ from.

    This situation could be viewed as economic slavery, certainly imperialism.

    Diplomacy needs to take a driving seat on this topic, not a political spin.
    We need CIP revenue and the spin-off revenue/jobs from it. We’ll all feel it if that revenue stream dries up.
    Mr. PM please step aside and allow experienced, world-view diplomats to make our case persuasively.

  9. Forgot. You better start preparing the population for the reintroduction of income tax. Mr. Burford can pivot from water works to personal income tax coming back.

    Dare you to say it is not on the table!!!!

    • If Antigua had income tax, the cost of living would be lower as goods and services would be cheaper for the poor man. The rich people would have less money sitting in the bank and the government would have funds to pay some of its debt and there would be less debt. Indirect taxation enriches the rich more and create more hardships for the poor.

  10. Once the European countries decide CIP is over, then it is over. They have the power to restrict our travel to their countries and so can kill CIP very easily and quickly. Just like the USA killed online gaming for us. The EU is giving us the opportunity to save the Schengen visa free status by repealing CIP. Take this opportunity. Do not refuse to end CIP and then have them kill both CIP and our passports.

  11. Unfortunately, we are so blinded by our petty-politics that we don’t even recognise when we are being taken advantage of. The very countries that will punish us for our CIP, have CIP programmes of their own. Yes, the USA has a CIP programme; as does UK; as does France; etc

    Like weapons of mass destruction, these 1st world countries are allowed to possess them, but they will bomb any 3rd world country into oblivion who dares to think of developing one.

    Might makes right

    • While you are correct in that these big countries do have a CIP program you have missed a fundamental part. The persons do not automatically gets citizenship or a passport.
      They have to invest in a legitimate sustainable business that employs a certain number of individuals. These are lacking from our program. So to compare ours to theirs is like comparing apokes and oranges.

      • Guy or Gal you have been misinformed. Our program (A&B) does not offer persons full citizenship but initially trail citizenship. The law makes clear that if during the first 5 years they are found guilty of any crime, they will not be able to move on to having full citizenship. They also must ensure they meet some other requirements like being in A&B for a period of time during said 5 years (Does it not sound similar to Green card?)Citizens are given passports lasting 10 years but CIP persons are given it initially for 5 years

        • @Tenman…👉🏽🤯please don’t have a brain #aneurysm. Save your energy, to conceptualise ideas which will propel the #Powerhouse Nation into the future with all of graduates from UWI – FIC and abroad coming home or staying home, and will require employment besides maids, cooks, landscapers, waiters, waitresses and of course, Wilmouth’s Hookers!
          The NWO has spoken, and ain’t shit can be done except, take a shit, but don’t let it hit the fan.

          BTW – how’s the return(s) on the HEMP Investments?

        • TENMAN HUGHES that is the worse rationalization I have seen from you so far. It is absolutely mind boggling. You would have been better off not posting that comment.

  12. Damn! Colonialism still alive and well. No wonder we are welcoming places like Venezuela, Cuba, and China with open arms, based on friendship and mutual respect.

    • @CErmle…do you have a direct line to Elizabeth at Windsor paiace⁉️🇬🇧Could you please, please, please call her and tell her, that her “Colonialism” is eating her subjects like piranhas. 🥂#CHEERS!

  13. The EU had issues with Malta and Cyprus,CIP Programs. All they are doing now is expanding it to all of the Passport selling Countries. There are too many of criminal minds with CI-Passports. The next thing coming down the pike would be looking at those with Diplomatic Passports.

  14. The funny thing is that Caribbean politicians already stole all the CIP money..So after all the years of billions collected we have nothing to show and none save up for rainy days .

  15. Tell baba to carry back the money for that building west yasco . Millions wasted plus over paid contractors .

  16. There is no choice for us here. The CIP will end either way. We can end it ourselves and keep our visa free travel to the EU or we can refuse to end CIP and then the EU will institute the visa requirement and CIP will end because our passport will be worthless. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to understand that we have only one choice and that is to voluntarily end CIP now so that we at least retain EU visa free travel. To refuse to end CIP will still result in us losing CIP but we will also lose visa free travel to the EU.

  17. Putin invading Ukraine has effectively killed CIP. The EU does not want rich Russians and oligarchs evading sanctions by travelling the world on CIP passports. They have decided that enough is enough when it comes to CIP. They are going to kill the CIP one way or the other. At least they have given us the opportunity to end CIP ourselves and retain the EU visa free travel. Let us do the smart thing and end CIP ourselves rather than have the EU take away or visa free travel and our CIP.

  18. The choice now for us to make is between losing CIP or losing both CIP & visa free travel to Europe. Not a difficult decision, I think.

  19. 😇🕊🍸…welcome to da #ROARING 20’s…the SEQUEL is a LIVE REALITY SHOW…no audition required just, “live the life you love, love the life you live!”
    📹🎥📽lights…camera…ACTION!
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  20. Please Mr PM, do the right thing for the citizens sake. Please put an end to the CIP program and allow our wonderful benefits traveling visa free these countries continue peacefully. Lets continue to stay on good terms with Europe moving forward.

  21. Anything we try to do to make a little money to help pay our bills, those 1st world imperialist countries look to shut down. Apparently only they are allowed to make money. They destroyed the offshore sector in these islands, they removed preferential treatment re bananas now they don’t want us to benefit from CIP. Economic slavery it is indeed. And that’s just so unfair.
    Mr. Browne has to weigh the pros and cons now. Which can we better afford to give up? The CIP or the visa access?

    • There is no choice here for us. If we do not give up CIP, we lose the visa free travel and CIP will then die because foreigners only want our passports to travel to Europe. We will then not have CIP and no visa free travel. We must give up the CIP. It is the only choice.

    • @ MJM Lol and I really mean it 😂😂😂
      What bills was paid with the money ⏳ waiting
      You really wrote that and hit the send button ?

  22. The question that we should ask is this? What happened to the 2 billion that the ABLP collected from the CIP?
    Spent on ghost cemeteries, No-fly Barbuda Airlines and many disappearing acts.

  23. The ABLP was against the CIP. Remember Max Hurst marching up and down, shouting: ” My passport is not for sale”.

    But the ABLP benefitted from from this UPP initiative.

    • Once there is an opportunity to make money, the labour government will never pass on it. The CIP program was originally to bring investors and investments into Antigua to develop the country. It is now a money cow for the government with no visible benefits to Antiguans. How many Antiguans travel to EU countries annually anyway? Antigua survived before CIP and did not have as much debt.

  24. Anyone with half a brain could have seen this coming.
    The problem is, after this inept regime use the CIP funds for recurring expenditure, and borrow millions, any new government is going to have a hard time when these loans become due and the CIP well dry up.
    I wonder if even YNAMCO will have any money

  25. It amuses me that after Gaston Browne acted like a real “house slave” at the behest of MASSA, trampling on the rights of the citizenry and forcing them to take the mRNA injections, that MASSA has now turned around and kicked him in the butt. I hope the other “house slaves” take notice and hopefully will not be so eager in the future to oppress the “field slaves” aka the general population to please MASSA.
    The other aspect of this issue is that the EU is a bully, plain and simple. They are no different from bullies who beat up their victims just because they are stronger. They impose all kinds of rules and strangleholds, but ONLY on those without the economic wherewithal to stand up to them; the ACP countries are always at the top of their hit lists.
    A careful examination of the various restrictions they have imposed over the years will show that the larger countries: Canada, China, Russia, Australia, USA etc, to various extents continue in the very practices that they forbid in the small states.
    So Antigua can close down its CIP, but know this can at best, only delay the inevitable end of visa-free travel. Incidentally visa-free travel has already been terminated for many Eastern Caribbean countries.

  26. CIP dead. Trust me. The question is, Will Gaston allow our passports to die with it? Time will tell.

  27. All this coming down on Antigua thanks to G-Ass-Ton and his regime. Mehul Choksi for starters. All them criminals G-Ass-ton and his regime give diplomatic passports to.

    When the RCMP or was it Scotland Yard was down here investigating Nigel Christian’s murder, they realise how corrupt G-Ass-ton and his regime is. They know what really happend but were blocked from continuing their investigations.

    Now our passports are being sold off for personal profit. Part of the creative enrichment scheme by G-Ass-ton and his cohorts.

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