The 45th CARICOM Heads Of Government meeting being held in Trinidad and Tobago came to a close with a press conference on Wednesday attended by leaders of the member nations.
The new CARICOM Chairman, Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced the decision made on the free movement of people across nations that are a part of the CARICOM Single Market Economy (CSME). “On the issue of free movement. We have taken a decision to seek to have the free movement of all categories of people to live and work. Obviously there are some legal issues that we have to examine and it will take the legal people some months to examine those legal issues and ensure that we can come to, by the 30th of March, to take a definite position on this,” Skerrit said.
Prime Minister, the Hon. Philip Davis also commented on the issue. He said, “we’re not impacted by it but we’ll facilitate travel to The Bahamas and the same rules and laws will apply as it is now. We are not a part of the CSME and so the arrangements there do not apply to us. We are protocol out of it. But we will be cooperating and collaborating in all other matters relating to CARICOM issues.”
The Bahamas and Monserrat are not members of the CSME.
