Not just any (body) can be a tourist

20Jul08

My mind goes back to those Guyanese tourists who were refused entry into Barbados during the Crop Over festival last year.

The process of getting a tourist visa to spend two weeks in a Latin American country (which shall remain nameless as i have not yet received the visa and don’t want to jinx things) brought to mind the hypocrisy of much discussion on immigration. Very often citizens of the South complain about exclusionary practices of countries of the North- the long lines to get a visa (Juan Luis Guerra’s Visa Para Un Sueño), the derogatory signs at the embassy entreating applicants to please keep their passports dry, the rising cost of a US visa, the security hassles involved in such travel, the deportations and detentions, the human rights abuses. Less often do you hear of the treatment meted from one developing country to another. (Barbadian Annalee Davis a documentary of the experiences of Guyanese immigrants in the Caribbean which I am yet to see but had received great reviews!)

To cut a very long and meandering story short the lady with whom I spoke at the consulate was unwilling to even share information on the visa application process. She did mention in a dismissive quip that i would need to appear in person at the Consulate in Trinidad to be fingerprinted, to fill out “lot’s of forms” and then she added the piece de resistance, “Do you have a bank account?” You know, coming from this tiny, backward Caribbean island, potential illegal immigrant that I am, I save my few pennies under the flea-infested mattress in my shanty. (When I called again the following day and was able to speak to someone who was willing to listen and was told that I could be issued with a two-week visa without being fingerprinted.)

Not just anybody can be a tourist…

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