Instead of learning from other people’s mistakes with the sale of passports, we are repeating them – and in every instance, Henley & Partners is the common factor

Henley & Partners is driving the sale of passports in Caribbean jurisdictions, just as it has been engaged to do in Malta, with deleterious consequences for those countries.

Here is an impassioned speech delivered by senator Ray Roberts to the senate in Grenada, only six weeks ago (31 August). He says that despite pressures on the Grenada government to raise money, it should not do so by “prostituting our passports”.

He was speaking in a debate on the Citizenship By Investment (CIB) Bill which the Caribbean island is thrashing out more or less concurrently with Malta, with the same advisers and consultants involved.

Roberts reminds the senate that previous such schemes have meant that the real people of Grenada have had to pay a heavy price. With Grenada selling its passports to all-comers, other states, including Canada, had imposed visa requirements on all holders of Grenadian passports, including born-and-bred natives because these things are always across the board.

Roberts said to the senate: “Mr. President – no sand dancing here – it is clear how the Canadian government felt about the CBI then – we were selling our passports – and many of the people who bought them were suspected of having criminal records. The Grenada Government Gazette published dozens of names of people from Middle East nations whose citizenships were revoked.”

He said, too: “We in the Grenada Trades Union Council value principles and therefore are strongly opposed to CBI, which is basically prostituting our beloved passport, enriching a selected few and, with one bad deal in the CBI, will create hardships for every Grenadian – and in particular, the poor people; the people from Telescope, Moyah St. Andrew, Happy Hill, River Road who today have to make an application, purchase a plane ticket to travel to Trinidad and line up in a Canada Embassy Office for an interview, and pray and hope that they get a VISA. That was the reward for Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique with the compliments of the previous citizenship program instituted by distinguished Prime Minister, Dr. Mitchell.”

The link to the full speech is below.