MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Four Caribbean countries sign free movement agreement

Gonsalves praised the new arrangement, dubbing the previous one “hollow”

Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines signed last week a free movement agreement allowing their citizens to live, travel, and work indefinitely in any of the participating countries without needing visas or work permits.

As per the Agreement, citizens traveling between the four countries will have their passports marked or digitally recorded to indicate an authorized indefinite stay.

Systems are in place for incoming travelers to register for access to education, healthcare, and other services, it was explained.

The deal seeks to make the right to free movement more meaningful. As St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves noted, the previous system —which allowed movement primarily for work but often restricted family access to services— was “hollow.”

To address concerns about crime, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley assured that proper guardrails and vetting systems are in place, emphasizing that any government can “refuse entry to a person who poses a genuine threat to national security.”

This initiative is spearheaded by Caricom, the 15-member regional trade bloc. Previously, Caricom nationals could only move freely for specific economic purposes, but this new protocol allows for relocation for any purpose, including leisure.

This new “deepened cooperation” was made possible by a 2022 Caricom protocol allowing smaller groups of members to move forward on integration efforts without full consensus. While Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines already had a similar arrangement under the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), this is the first such deal for Belize and Barbados.