The British Ambassador to The Dominican Republic and Haiti, Mr Steven Fisher, and the UK’s Charge D’Affaires in Port Au Prince, Mr Rick Shearn, visited Turks and Caicos Islands from 14-16 September. The purpose of their visit was to see the links between the DR, Haiti and TCI, and to consider ways to enhance relations. In addition to the Governor, Premier and Minister of Border Control, they met and visited representatives from the Haitian community and Haitian Consulate, the radar detection station, and the Department of Border Control.
The Governor said after the visit: “I’m pleased that the senior members of our team in Santo Domingo and Port au Prince have now seen for themselves the importance of the relationships between our three countries. A priority was to understand the difficulties created by irregular migration, and our Charge D’Affaires will be underlining again to the Haitian Government the need to do everything possible to prevent it. The Premier and I agreed that we should look to build upon recent discussions with Haiti on health exchanges by exploring other areas for cooperation which could benefit both countries.”
The visitors also discussed with the Governor, Premier and Minister of Border Control a range of issues involving the DR, including illegal fishing and people trafficking. The British Ambassador, Steven Fisher, also updated the Minister of Border Control on the dispute over the TCI-DR maritime border. He said that the British Government continues to use diplomatic channels to reject the DR’s position, and to request an explanation for it. The Ambassador agreed to raise some of these issues at official level with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the DR.
Commenting on his visit the Ambassador said: “There are understandable concerns in Turks and Caicos, which I heard very clearly, about illegal fishing, the maritime border dispute, and the exploitation of women. These are issues which it is appropriate to discuss with the Ministry, and I will commence a dialogue at official level – which subsequently the Governor and TCIG might take forward – which will underline some of the concerns I heard in Turks and Caicos. I hope too that, as a result of the visit, our Embassy might bear in mind tourism, agricultural and business investment from DR or Haiti to Turks and Caicos. It is evidently a country which has big opportunities for high end tourism.”
