Barbados deal with three others allows easy access

Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines earlier this month signed 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.

Citizens travelling between the four countries will have their passports marked or digitally recorded to indicate an authorised indefinite stay. Systems are in place for incoming travellers to register for access to education, healthcare, and other services.

The deal seeks to make the right to free movement more meaningful. St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves is a strong advocate of the new policy. He said the previous system — which allowed movement primarily for work but often restricted family access to services — was “hollow.”

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley assured that proper security and vetting systems are in place to prevent free movement of criminals. She said 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. CARICOM nationals could only previously 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.