British Virgin Islands

Hurricanes occasionally hit the islands, with the Atlantic hurricane season running from June to November.

Damage in Road Town following Hurricane Irma

On 6 September 2017, Hurricane Irma struck the islands, causing extensive damage, especially on Tortola, and killing four people.[16][17][18] The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency declared a state of emergency.[19][20] Visiting Tortola on 13 September 2017, UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said that he was reminded of photos of Hiroshima after it had been hit by the atom bomb.[21]

Hurricane Maria struck a week after Hurricane Irma

By 8 September, the UK government sent troops with medical supplies and other aid.[22] More troops were expected to arrive a day or two later, but HMS Ocean, carrying more extensive assistance, was not expected to reach the islands for another two weeks.[23]

Entrepreneur Richard Branson, a resident of Necker Island, called on the UK government to develop a massive disaster recovery plan to include "both through short-term aid and long-term infrastructure spending".[24] Premier Orlando Smith also called for a comprehensive aid package to rebuild the territory. On 10 September UK Prime Minister Theresa May pledged £32 million to the Caribbean for a hurricane relief fund and promised that the UK government would match donations from the public to the British Red Cross appeal.[25] Specifics were not provided to the news media as to the amount that would be allocated to the Virgin Islands.[19][26] Boris Johnson's visit to Tortola on 13 September 2017 during his Caribbean tour was intended to confirm the UK's commitment to helping restore British islands but he provided no additional comments on the aid package.[27][28] He did confirm that HMS Ocean had departed for the BVI carrying items like timber, buckets, bottled water, food, baby milk, bedding and clothing, as well as ten pickup trucks, building materials and hardware.[29]

The UK offered to underwrite rebuilding loans up to US$400m as long as there was accountability as to how the monies were spent. Successive NDP and VIP governments declined, despite there having been created a Recovery & Development Authority led by highly skilled infrastructure personnel, many of whom were ex-military with decades of infrastructure rebuilding expertise from war zones and natural disaster sites. Many wealthy residents also proposed a large rebuilding plan, starting with key infrastructure, such as the high school. Nearly five years later, there was no sign of any such rebuilding of the high school or certain other key infrastructure.

The British Virgin Islands is a unitary territory. The territory is divided into nine electoral districts, and each voter is registered in one of those districts.[33] Eight of the nine districts are partly or wholly on Tortola, and encompass nearby neighbouring islands. Only the ninth district (Virgin Gorda and Anegada) does not include any part of Tortola. At elections, in addition to voting their local representative, voters also cast votes for four "at-large" candidates who are elected upon a territory-wide basis.

The territory is also technically divided into five administrative districts (one for each of the four largest islands, with the fifth covering all other islands), and into six civil registry districts (three for Tortola, Jost Van Dyke, Virgin Gorda and Anegada) although these have little practical relevance.

Crime in the British Virgin Islands is comparatively low by Caribbean standards. Whilst statistics and hard data are relatively rare, and are not regularly published by governmental sources in the British Virgin Islands, the Premier did announce that in 2013 there has been a 14% decline in recorded crime as against 2012.[34] Homicides are rare,[35] with just one incident recorded in 2013.

The Virgin Islands Prison Service operates a single facility, His Majesty's Prison in East End, Tortola.[36]

The British and US Virgin Islands sit at the axis of a major drugs transshipment point between Latin America and the continental United States.[3] The American Drug Enforcement Administration regards the adjacent US territories of Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands as a "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area".[37] A co-operation agreement exists between the British Virgin Islands and the US Coast Guard allowing American forces to pursue suspected drug traffickers through the territorial waters of the British Virgin Islands. In August 2011 a joint raid between the American DEA and the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force arrested a number of British Virgin Islands residents who are accused of being involved in major drugs transshipments,[38] although their extradition to the United States has since become stalled in protracted legal wrangling.[39]

As a British Overseas territory, defence of the islands is the responsibility of the United Kingdom.[3]

The Baths, Virgin Gorda

Tourism accounts for approximately 45% of national income.[40] The islands are a popular destination for US citizens.[40] Tourists frequent the numerous white sand beaches, visit The Baths on Virgin Gorda, snorkel the coral reefs near Anegada, or experience the well-known bars of Jost Van Dyke. The BVI are known as one of the world's greatest sailing destinations, and charter sailboats are a very popular way to visit less accessible islands. Established in 1972, the BVI hosts the BVI Spring Regatta and Sailing Festival.[45] A substantial number of the tourists who visit the BVI are cruise ship passengers, and although they produce far lower revenue per head than charter boat tourists and hotel based tourists, they are nonetheless important to the substantial - and politically important - taxi driving community. Only Virgin Islanders are permitted to work as taxi drivers.

Financial services account for over half of the income of the territory. The majority of this revenue is generated by the licensing of offshore companies and related services. The British Virgin Islands is a significant global player in the offshore financial services industry.[46] Since 2001, financial services in the British Virgin Islands have been regulated by the independent Financial Services Commission.

The BVI is relied upon for its sophisticated Commercial Court division of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, as well as the more recent BVI Arbitration Centre. Caribbean QCs and British QCs preside over the majority of important cases and the laws of the Virgin Islands are based on English laws, meaning the jurisdiction provides clarity and consistency should parties require commercial disputes to be resolved. Owing to the international nature of BVI companies' operations and asset holdings, the BVI Commercial Court routinely hears highly sophisticated matters at the cutting edge of cross-border litigation and enforcement, where billions of dollars are at issue.

Citco, also known as the Citco Group of Companies and the Curaçao International Trust Co., is a privately owned global hedge fund administrator headquartered in the British Virgin Islands, founded in 1948.[47] It is the world's largest hedge fund administrator, managing over $1 trillion in assets under administration.[48]

In May 2022, the banking sector of the British Virgin Islands comprised seven commercial banks[49] and one restricted bank, 12 authorised custodians, two licensed money services businesses and one licensed financing service provider.[50]

As such the British Virgin Islands is frequently referred to as a "tax haven" by campaigners and NGOs, including Oxfam, which itself has investment funds registered in lesser regulated jurisdictions such as Lichtenstein and Delaware [51] and has been expressly named in anti-tax-haven legislation in other countries on various occasions.[52] Successive governments in the British Virgin Islands have implemented tax exchange agreements and verified beneficial ownership information of companies following the 2013 G8 summit putting their governance and regulatory regimes far ahead of many "onshore" jurisdictions.

On 10 September 2013, British Prime Minister David Cameron said "I do not think it is fair any longer to refer to any of the Overseas Territories or Crown Dependencies as tax havens. They have taken action to make sure that they have fair and open tax systems. It is very important that our focus should now shift to those territories and countries that really are tax havens."[53][54] Yet journalist and author for The Economist, Nicholas Shaxson, writes in his 2016 Treasure Islands, tax havens and the men who stole the world: "...Britain sits, spider-like, at the centre of a vast international web of tax havens, which hoover up trillions of dollars' worth of business and capital from around the globe and funnel it up to the City of London. The British Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories - ...the British Virgin Islands... are some of the biggest players in the offshore world."(pp. vii-viii) Shaxson points out that despite BVI having fewer than 25000 inhabitants, hosts over 800,000 companies. "Companies and capital migrate not where they are most productive, but to where they can get the best tax break...and the worlds top secrecy jurisdictions" (pp. 13, 16). For example, News Corporation had 62 subsidiaries in the British Virgin Islands, 33 in Cayman and 21 in Hong Kong, while the Commonwealth Development Corporation has 78 subsidiaries in tax havens including the British Virgin Islands. The British Virgin Islands is a "top secrecy jurisdiction, actively supported and managed from Britain and intimately linked to the City of London."(Ibid., p. 90). For these reasons, Shaxson says that "tax havens help explain why international investment flows often look so strange. The two biggest sources of foreign investment into China in 2007 were not Japan, or the US or South Korea, but Hong Kong and the British Virgin Islands."(Ibid., p. 164).

In the April 2016 Panama Papers leak, while all of the wrongdoing by Mossack Fonseca personnel occurred in Panama and the US, the British Virgin Islands was by far the most commonly-used jurisdiction by clients of Mossack Fonseca.[55]

On 30 June 2014, The British Virgin Islands[56] was deemed to have an Inter- Governmental Agreement (IGA) with the United States of America with respect to the "Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act" of the United States of America.

The Model 1 Agreement (14 Pages)[57] recognizes that: The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland provided a copy of the Letter of Entrustment which was sent to the Government of the British Virgin Islands, to the Government of the United States of America "via diplomatic note of 28 May 2014".

The Letter of Entrustment dated 14 July 2010 was originally provided to the Government of the British Virgin Islands and authorised the Government of the BVI "to negotiate and conclude Agreements relating to taxation that provide for exchange of information on tax matters to the OECD standard" (Paragraph 2 of the FATCA Agreement). Via an "Entrustment Letter" dated 24 March 2014, The Government of the United Kingdom, authorised the Government of the BVI to sign an agreement on information exchange to facilitate the Implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act.[57] On 27 March 2017, the US Treasury site disclosed that the Model 1 agreement and related agreement were "In Force" on 13 July 2015.

Under the UK Sanctions and Anti-Money Laundering Act of 2018, beneficial ownership of companies in British overseas territories such as the British Virgin Islands must be publicly registered for disclosure by 31 December 2020.[58] The Government of the British Virgin Islands plans to challenge this law, arguing that it violates the Constitutional sovereignty granted to the islands, would in practice be relatively ineffective in anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing and would raise serious privacy and human rights issues. Further, this would put the British Virgin Islands in a position where it would be at a severe disadvantage because other International Finance Centres do not have this in place, and in the case of the US and the UK, there is very little near-term prospect of the same.[58]

Agriculture and industry account for only a small proportion of the islands' GDP.[3] Agricultural produce includes fruit, vegetables, sugar cane, livestock and poultry, and industries include rum distillation, construction and boat building. Commercial fishing is also practised in the islands' waters.[5]

The British Virgin Islands is heavily dependent on migrant workers, and over 50% of all workers on the islands are of a foreign descent. Only 37% of the entire population were born in the territory.[1] The national labour-force is estimated at 12,770, of whom approximately 59.4% work in the service sector but less than 0.6% are estimated to work in agriculture (the balance working in industry).[59][3] The British Virgin Islands has met challenges in recruiting sufficient numbers in recent years, having been affected by hurricanes Irma and Maria, and having continued to lag behind other jurisdictions in providing a reliable permanent residence regime. This has had a knock-on effect in limiting schooling and amenities when compared to IFCs like Cayman, UAE, Singapore, Hong Kong.

As of 2 July 1991, the British Virgin Islands holds Associate Member status in CARICOM, the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME).[60][61]

In recognition of the CARICOM (Free Movement) Skilled Persons Act which came into effect in July 1997 in some of the CARICOM countries such as Jamaica and which has been adopted in other CARICOM countries,[62] such as Trinidad and Tobago,[63][64] it is possible that CARICOM nationals who hold the "A Certificate of Recognition of Caribbean Community Skilled Person" may be allowed to work in the BVI under normal working conditions.

Jost Van Dyke Methodist Church in 2010

Jost Van Dyke Methodist Church in 2019, after Hurricane Irma

Over 90% of the population who indicated a religious affiliation at the 2010 Census were Christian[75] with the largest individual Christian denominations being Methodist (18.1%),[75] Anglican (9.8%), Church of God (10.6%) and Roman Catholic (9.1%).[1] The Constitution of the British Virgin Islands commences with a professed national belief in God.[76] Hindus and Muslims constitute each approximately 1.2% of the population according to Word Religion Database 2005.[77]

The primary language is English, although there is a local dialect.[5] Spanish is spoken by Puerto Rican, Dominican and other Hispanic immigrants.

The traditional music of the British Virgin Islands is called fungi after the local cornmeal dish with the same name, often made with okra. The special sound of fungi is due to a unique local fusion between African and European music. It functions as a medium of local history and folklore and is therefore a cherished cultural form of expression that is part of the curriculum in BVI schools. The fungi bands, also called "scratch bands", use instruments ranging from calabash, washboard, bongos and ukulele, to more traditional western instruments like keyboard, banjo, guitar, bass, triangle and saxophone. Apart from being a form of festive dance music, fungi often contains humorous social commentaries, as well as BVI oral history.[80]

Because of its location and climate, the British Virgin Islands has long been a haven for sailing enthusiasts. Sailing is regarded as one of the foremost sports in all of the BVI. Calm waters and steady breezes provide some of the best sailing conditions in the Caribbean.[81]

Many sailing events are held in the waters of this country, the largest of which is a week-long series of races called the Spring Regatta, the premier sailing event of the Caribbean, with several races hosted each day. Boats include everything from full-size mono-hull yachts to dinghies. Captains and their crews come from all around the world to attend these races. The Spring Regatta is part race, part party, part festival. The Spring Regatta is normally held during the first week of April.[82]

Since 2009, the BVI have made a name for themselves as a host of international basketball events. The BVI hosted three of the last four events of the Caribbean Basketball Championship (FIBA CBC Championship).[83]