Barbados resumes mail service to SVG and some other countries in the region

The Barbados Postal Services has said it is again accepting mail for posting to St Vincent and the Grenadines and some other countries in the Caribbean.

According to the Barbados Today on-line newspaper the country’s postal service is also accepting mail destined for Grenada, Guyana and Dominica.

However, the paper quotes the Barbados Postmaster General as advising that there will be delays until normal transport capacity becomes available.

It said in addition, airmail services are available to Antigua, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Canada, the United States of America (USA) and the United Kingdom (UK).

While Barbados has resumed a mail service to St Vincent and the Grenadines(SVG), it has not yet advised of a resumption of transit services which were discontinued from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when borders were closed and air services across the globe disrupted.

For decades, Barbados has been the regional hub for the flow of mail into and out of SVG and many other countries in the region which have had to find other ways and means to deal with mail.

Jacqueline Adams-Olliverre, Director of Postal services in SVG said there continues to be long delays in the delivery of mail, with sender countries having to make their own arrangements how the mail they receive get to the intended destinations.

With the demise of regional carrier Liat adding to the challenges, given its central role in transporting mail across the region postal officials in SVG have had to make use of “other facilities which were almost non-existent,” Adams-Ollivierre told SEARCHLIGHT.

Currently, there is very little regional mail movement. The Postal Services Director explained that mail from SVG destined for Trinidad and Tobago and St Lucia is now transported by boat, with St Lucia being the transit point for mail from SVG to the US transported by American Airlines.

The return to some sense of normalcy in the reestablishment of mail transit services, international travel and regional transportation arrangements for airline cargo services, should also see improvements in the movement of mail into and out of SVG. Until then, the public should expect continued delays.