“The four [countries] have agreed to grant their nationals the right to enter, leave and re-enter, move freely, reside, work and remain indefinitely in the receiving Member State without the need for a work or residency permit.”
Representatives from Barbados, Belize, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines met on Thursday, 18 September 2025, to further coordinate, update and discuss steps towards full Free Movement come 1 October 2025. The four have agreed to grant their nationals the right to enter, leave and re-enter, move freely, reside, work and remain indefinitely in the receiving Member State without the need for a work or residency permit.
This is in keeping with a CARICOM Heads of Government decision taken in July this year.
Thursday’s meeting focused on administrative arrangements for Free Movement under enhanced cooperation and sensitisation needs. The meeting confirmed that many of the systems are in place to be rolled out for the start date of 1 October this year. The need for public education was emphasised, so that nationals of these four Member States are informed of, among other things, their ability to access emergency and primary health care, and public primary and secondary education, within the means of the receiving Member State.
This Free Movement arrangement falls within the new Enhanced Cooperation Chapter of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. Under that Chapter, the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government can allow for groups of at least three Member States to seek to advance integration among themselves, where the Conference agrees that the targeted objectives cannot be attained within a reasonable period by the Community as a whole.
This type of free movement expands what is offered under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). It is available to all CARICOM nationals of the participating four countries.
The other Member States participating in the CSME will continue to operate free movement under the existing Regimes (Skills, Services, Business Establishment and general facilitation of travel). (CARICOM News)
