Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines are set to implement full free movement of CARICOM (Caribbean Community) nationals among themselves from Wednesday 1 October. CARICOM is the oldest surviving regional integration movement in the developing world, comprising twenty countries with fifteen Member States and six Associate Members.
The move follows an agreement by the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community at its 49th Regular Meeting in July.
According to CARICOM, the new regime will enable nationals of the four participating states to enter, leave, re-enter, reside, work, and remain indefinitely in each other’s territories without requiring work or residency permits. They will also have access to emergency and primary healthcare, as well as public primary and secondary education, within the means of the receiving member state.
This initiative falls under the Enhanced Cooperation Chapter of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and is part of the ongoing development of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). Nationals of the other CSME states will continue to move under the existing limited regimes for skills, services, business establishment and travel facilitation.
