The Tribune

By KHRISNA RUSSELL

Tribune Chief Reporter

krussell@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis should “enjoy his retirement”, a Cabinet minister said yesterday, while dismissing the Killarney MP’s criticisms of the discontinuation of the travel health visa for Bahamian citizens and residents returning home from abroad.

Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper insisted the decision was made in the best interest of Bahamians and fired back at the “all powerful” former competent authority.

He also maintained not only was it an election promise fulfilled, but also a response to complaints from Bahamians that the visa process was a “nuisance”.

On Sunday, Dr Minnis said the Davis administration made a “grave mistake” by removing the travel health visa requirement for Bahamians and residents who are returning to the country from international travel.

“I think the former Prime Minister should enjoy his retirement quite frankly,” Mr Cooper, who is also the Minister of Tourism, Investments and Aviation, told reporters outside Cabinet. “I think we are making decisions that are in the best interest of the Bahamian people.

“We promised the Bahamian people that we would remove the travel visa. The Bahamian people, our constituents, indicated to us that it was a nuisance.

“We are comfortable that the Ministry of Health is putting in place and has done a significant amount already to conduct contact tracing. They’ve beefed it up in terms of their procedures and we have ensured that we move on from the state of play where this same former Prime Minister was all powerful as the competent authority.

“So, we’ve moved away from that. We thought it was bad for The Bahamas that one man is making all the decisions. We eliminated the competent authority and we now ensure that we have a collective comprehensive view of all of the stakeholders at the table to develop rules that we put in place so that we can live with COVID.”

Mr Cooper said the pandemic isn’t over, but the reality was the government was required to put sensible procedures in place to ensure there is balance.

“So, we have not been loose and free as I have said before in terms of the changes that we have made but we recognise for health, for tourism, for public health and the safety of the Bahamian people we needed balance and we are comfortable that we have that balance.”

Dr Minnis has said he believes the government should reconsider the decision to scrap the travel visa, saying the data gleaned from it was an important tool in contact tracing.

The removal of the travel visa requirement for returning Bahamians and residents took effect on Monday. However, persons in this category are still required to present a negative COVID-19 test upon arrival at the airport.