Turks & Caicos Updates Migrant Health Policy

Dana Malcolm

Staff writer

#TurksandCaicos, August 25, 2022 – Residents from a host of Middle Eastern, African, Asian, and Caribbean countries will have to be vaccinated and tested for various infectious diseases and get their health work-ups done at pre-approved locations before arriving in the Turks and Caicos Islands for work.

This is because they have been determined to be high risk for infectious diseases by the Turks and Caicos Islands Government. The Migrant Health process became much more stringent after the government updated them in an effort to stop the copious amounts of falsified health documents circulating.

Citizens of several African and Asian countries including Benin, Cape Verde, Macau, and others will have to go to another country altogether to visit medical institutions pre-approved by the TCIG

In addition, the cost for a medical certificate has increased to $50 per person and applicants from all countries must have their diphtheria, tetanus, measles, and polio vaccines

The government had explained that it divided the process for high and low-risk countries. Individuals seeking to work on the islands who are from low-risk countries will be able to get their health checks done in the Turks and Caicos when they arrive.

The changes were deemed necessary when the Health Ministry realized they could not authenticate a number of the health certificates being used on the islands and fake certificates were becoming increasingly common.