Rowley: Travellers must know US visa laws

He made the statement yesterday against the backdrop of last Wednesday night’s incident in which Trinidad and Tobago sporting ambassador Dwight Yorke was blocked from boarding a flight to the United States after he was red-flagged by officials in Qatar.

Yorke was expected to get a connecting flight from Qatar to Miami, and then to TT, but was unable to do so because a visit to Iran in 2015 prevented him from entering the US. Yorke was in Qatar performing commentary for BeIN Sports TV for Thursday’s Europe League match featuring Manchester United against St Etienne.

The former Manchester United star, who is reported to have said that he felt like a criminal, was due to arrive in TT to participate in Carnival celebrations.

But commenting on the issue at a news conference, yesterday, minutes after his arrival from the 28th Intersessional Meeting of the Caricom Community in Guyana, Rowley told reporters: “Proper information needs to be had by persons who are engaging in international travel.” He added: “What has happened there is that Mr Yorke is a dual citizen and travels on a British passport sometimes.” Rowley said in Yorke using the British passport and presenting himself as a British citizen, he would have not required a visa because he would have fallen under the visa waiver which applies for a number of countries, the UK being one of them.

“So, travelling with a UK passport, and I am sure he would have done that before, would not have required a US visa.” Rowley said, however, that under the Obama administration, a new law was passed in the US which indicated that even though a waiver exists for citizens of those countries including the UK, “if such citizens had been to certain countries, Iran being one of them, then the waiver no longer applies, meaning that if you are a British citizen and you travel to a place like Iran, you would require a visa.

“And, if you did not get that visa, with your British passport, you are in effect attempting to enter the US without a visa and it is on that basis that you would be stopped.“I think that is what happened to Mr Yorke and I am sure that is something that he will address, travelling with a UK passport. If he was travelling with a TT passport he would have been very aware that we in Trinidad and Tobago require a visa to go into the US.” Rowley said Yorke’s visa was “nullified by virtue of the fact that the law now says that if you have been to Iran, Iraq or Syria, you would no longer come in without a visa.”