THE Government of the Dominican Republic (DR) has renewed its call for the removal of the requirement for nationals from that country to require a visa to Jamaica.

Vice-Minister of Bilateral Foreign Policy in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Dominican Republic José Julio Gómez, who visited island last week, told a meeting of the
Jamaica Observer Press Club that he had met with Prime Minister Andrew Holness to reiterate the appeal for the visa requirement to be waived.

“We have a barrier…which is that the Dominican citizen needs a visa to come to Jamaica. In 2007 we released a decree to allow Jamaicans to come to the Dominican Republic without the requirements of a visa. It was the first point that I raised when I had the opportunity to speak with the prime minister and also with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith, who has a very close relationship with the Dominican Republic,” said Gómez.

“Prime Minister Holness and [Dominican Republic] President [Luis] Abinader have a very close relationship, they worked together last year two times and they have spoken about that. Prime Minister Holness told us that they want to resolve, as soon as possible, this issue, because we really want more Dominicans in Jamaica — not to live in Jamaica [but] to visit Jamaica because Jamaica has a lot of things,” added Gómez as he pointed out that scores of Dominicans want to travel to Jamaica but cannot do so easily.

Last year the Observer reported on the case of Dominican Carlos Martinez who wanted to travel to Jamaica to celebrate his 28th birthday with his new-found family in island, but was denied a visa.

Martinez, who used this newspaper to locate his Jamaican ex-sailor father, Lincoln Roache, was left disappointed at the Jamaican embassy in Santo Domingo after learning that he would not be granted a visa.

Following the intervention of Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs Martinez was granted a visa and made the trip to meet his family.

Now Gómez and members of his Government want to ensure that no other national of that country faces that dilemma.

“That is something which our president wants to sign before August. We will have general elections in the Dominican Republic in May and it is something that our Government has been working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, with the Minister of National Security [Dr Horace Chang], also,” said Gómez.

“And, of course, we included that in this conversation as part of our bilateral agenda,” added Gómez who was in the island for the second Dominican Republic-Jamaica Business Forum held at AC Hotel Kingston.

He told Observer editors and reporters that while the DR wants to have improved relations with Caribbean Community (Caricom) member states, its two key partners are Jamaica and Guyana.

“We opened an embassy in Guyana and now the presidency of Caricom is in Guyana… and we are using this very good relationship we have with Jamaica and Guyana to strengthen the relationship between the Dominican Republic and Caricom as an organisation,” said Gómez.

He pointed out that getting the visa waiver for Dominicans is more than a travel issue.

“It’s not about only that. It is about the dignity of the national identity of the Dominican Republic, that we really want to get a stronger Dominican passport. We have an agreement for the diplomatic and official passport [with Jamaica] but we really want to sign this agreement by August,” Gómez reiterated as he argued that it is not that the citizens of his country will want to migrate to Jamaica.

“We really want to tackle this different challenge which has been a barrier to strengthening the relationship between both countries. I really want to come back to Jamaica to sign this agreement before the election. And something that we raised with the prime minister is that he has an open invitation to the Dominican Republic,” declared Gómez as he noted that Arajet, a low-price airline originating from the DR, now offers five flights a week between Santo Domingo and Kingston, and these are usually full.

Gómez was supported by the DR’s Ambassador to Jamaica Angie Martinez who was also a guest at the Observer Press Club.

She pointed out that some three million Dominicans travel all over the world annually, “and they are willing to explore their closer neighbours”.

Martinez further noted that several Jamaicans travel to the Dominican Republic annually and argued that the visa requirement is preventing Dominicans from travelling in the opposite direction.

“So it is also in the interest of Jamaica to fix that situation of the visa requirement. We need to be free to come here to Jamaica so you can have more tourists…and everybody loves Jamaica. Everybody loves Bob Marley, everybody loves Usain Bolt, [and] everybody loves Jamaican culture.

“We are connected by one hour, so I really want to highlight that because I think it is really important, not only for tourism but will translate to increase in businesses, more investments, [and] more exports,” said Martinez.