S
"Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies." After the
introduction of the 1981 Act, the description was amended
to "British Dependent Territories Citizen (Bermuda)".
When this change was introduced, the Bermuda Government
was under the impression that the new format passport
would be accepted by third countries on the same basis
the old one, and that holders of Bermuda passports would
continue to have visa-free access to those countries with
which the UK had reciprocal visa arrangements.
practice this turned out not to be the case: six EC
states still continue to demand visas.
In
4.
When Bermuda's Premier, John Swan visited London
and called on the Prime Minister in 1988, the Secretary
of State agreed to delegate to the Government of Bermuda
authority to negotiate bilateral visa abolition
arrangements with EC states, but our own role was to be
passive and limited to providing names of officials and
contacts. To date, other than the UK, five EC states
(Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and, most
recently, Portugal) have agreed to visa-free arrangements
for Bermudian holders of BDTC passports, but there seem$
little prospect of further success without a push from
us.
Denmark, France and the FRG at honorary consul
level, have all recently confirmed that they continue to
require visas.
5. Sir Jack Sharpe, Bermuda's Minister for
Delegated and Legislative Affairs wrote last year to Sir
David Hannay, asking him to approach EC colleagues to
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.