(Tinidad Express) – HUNDREDS of Trinidad and Tobago nationals who travelled to the United Kingdom and applied for asylum have been repatriated, Minister of Foreign and Caricom Affairs Sean Sobers disclosed yesterday.
Sobers told the Express in an interview that between 90 and 97% of the 700-plus nationals who had sought asylum had been returned to Trinidad in the last couple months.
Just over a year ago, on March 12, 2025, the United Kingdom government announced that all Trinidad and Tobago nationals would require a visa to enter the UK, including for short visits.
The decision came in response to what the UK government described as a “significant increase” in nationals arriving as visitors and then claiming asylum.
Between 2023 and 2024, there were 797 asylum applications from Trinidad and Tobago nationals.
Former minister of national security Fitzgerald Hinds said, at the time, that local criminals were fleeing to the United Kingdom to seek asylum to “avoid accountability to the law,” which he said contributed to the visa requirement.
