PM Douglas on Passport Revocation

ZIZ News — Prime Minister the Rt. Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas has stated the government’s willingness to revoke passports held by persons with economic citizenship who have committed crimes.

During this week’s edition of “Ask the PM”, Prime Minister Douglas said if a person obtained economic citizenship through fraud or other false pretences then the government can and will take action.

“Once this is brought to our attention we have, in the past, revoked citizenship and naturally if you can revoke citizenship then the instrument that the Foreign Ministry allows you to travel with is also recalled,” he said.

The Prime Minister also referred to a question about the passport of Dr. Arthur Porter who has been allegedly receiving kickbacks from a project in Canada.

He said as far as he knows Dr. Porter has not been convicted of a crime.

“If Arthur Porter is now being named, it would appear, by a contractor that was engaged in the construction of a hospital facility in Canada that he seemed to have been involved in and he has been named as a recipient of some kind of kickback. That does not mean that Dr Arthur Porter has been convicted of a crime. As far as I know Dr Arthur Porter is in Panama and is awaiting trial,” he said.

He also cleared the air on the misinformation that Porter was the Federation’s Consul General in the Bahamas.

“The Bahamas government has not responded in the affirmative up to this moment and so Dr Arthur Porter has not been…has not been as our Consul General in the Bahamas,” he said.

Prime Minister Douglas said Porter was named but not appointed and he feels that this information was placed in the press to mislead the public.