By: Staff Writer
March 12, 2024
Less than a week after Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley announced that the free movement of Caribbean nationals is on track for March 31, Antigua and Barbuda along with The Bahamas has said that they are not prepared to implement the Caribbean Single Market and Economy mandate.
Prime Minister Mottley announced this deadline while she was participating in the closing press conference of the 46th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM which was held in Georgetown, Guyana, over the period 25-28 February.
Since that time, however, Dr Clarence Henry, Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to CARICOM, has communicated that his country is not able at this time to implement such a policy while citing the fiscal challenges his country faces.
“Once we are able to implement such a liberal policy, we would signal to the Secretariat and to the community that we are ready,” Ambassador Henry explained.
Antigua and Barbuda’s stance on free movement is not new, as the country has previously obtained derogations and opted out of certain obligations within CARICOM.
The Bahamas as well has nixed any notion of allowing the free movement of people, because The Bahamas is not a signatory to the CSME and does not have to allow any mandate as a result of it.
Fred Mitchell, minister for foreign affairs in The Bahamas, in a statement over the weekend, said: “The Bahamian public is reminded that The Bahamas is not a part of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and, therefore, the free movement of people does not apply to The Bahamas,”
“There has been no change in the policy or our treaty arrangements since that time. The comments being circulated attributed to the prime minister of Barbados do not apply in any way to The Bahamas.”
Mottley affirmed that there are two outstanding matters that must be resolved before full free movement can be operationalized. These two policy issues were referred to Heads for settlement by the intergovernmental task force on free movement. The task force will meet on 7 March and the Community’s Legal Affairs Committee will sign off on the draft decisions the following day.
“Heads of Government will meet on the 15th of March with the hope that we can sign off in time for the deadline given in Trinidad of the 31st of March for the full freedom of movement of people. As you know, people have the right to move now for six months without question. What we are talking about is removing that six-month constraint, but we equally have to understand what are the minimum rights that are guaranteed to our citizens when they move from one country to the other and those are being resolved and settled now,”