A group of men who were visiting Africa as part of Operation Greenlight, a local organisation, have been held up in Brussels on their return journey and informed that they need visas in order to enter the US.

Khalid Wasi, principal organiser of the trip, said that US, UK and Belgium immigration officials told him that UK Overseas Territory (UKOT) passport holders now require a visa when transiting through the US from Africa or Asia.

However, Deputy Governor Nick Carter believes there may have been a mix up because many immigration officials are not used to a UKOT passport.

Mr. Wasi said he was not aware of the visa requirements until he was stopped by immigration officials in Brussels and told members of his group would not be able to carry on with their flight plans.

They informed Mr. Wasi that he did not have the necessary paperwork to travel onwards through the US.

Mr. Wasi spent the last two weeks in Senegal with young Bermudian men as part of Operation Greenlight working with their main sponsor Habitat for Humanity.

Their journey home began in Senegal when they were expected to make a connecting flight in Brussels to the US and then another connecting flight to Bermuda.

With Mr. Wasi are six young men and three adults, the remaining five men they were travelling with were allowed to carry on to their connecting flights because they possessed US or UK passports.

Mr. Wasi said he asked airport authorities to help him sort out the visa issue at the airport instead of going to the British Consulate in Brussels. An American Airlines immigration expert told him that a recently passed rule required UKOT passport holders to get a visa and that the Bermudians should not have even been allowed to leave Senegal.

Mr. Wasi told that because American Airlines had allowed the men on board their flight leaving Senegal they were culpable and have had to put the men up in Brussels and then fly them to London and onwards to Bermuda. He also said the British and US Embassies in Brussels confirmed that what the AA official said was correct.

Deputy Governor Carter said that he believes there was a misunderstanding because the immigration officials in Belgium are not used to dealing with UKOT passports. He explained that there is a difference between UKOT passports and UK passports.

The agreement that allows Bermudians to travel to the US without a visa is based on the arrangement dating back to when Bermudians only needed a driver?s licence to travel to the US.

Mr Carter said that the agreement with the US that allowed UK passport holders to travel without a visa was a different arrangement.

?I guess what happened is that they got into the US easily because the airport they travelled through knows the long-standing arrangement with Bermuda,? he said.

?Elsewhere they do not have as many people travelling with Overseas Territory passports and do not know the arrangement and assumed they need a visa.?

Mr. Wasi?s phone call to was made after the US Consulate was closed and efforts to contact an official to comment on the American policy on UKOT passport holders travelling from Asia and Africa were unsuccessful.

Mr. Wasi wanted to assure the family and friends of the young men he was travelling with that everyone was fine and Brussels is a wonderful city.

He said the boys enjoyed exploring it during their long lay over, he added that American Airlines have treated everyone very well.

The group returns on a British Airways flight today.