Health

CARICOM BREAKTHROUGH: FOUR STATES TO LAUNCH FULL FREE MOVEMENT FROM OCTOBER 1

AnyFans 2025-09-17

By Hgptv

Georgetown – In a landmark step for regional integration, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St Vincent and the Grenadines will from October 1, 2025 implement a full free movement regime among themselves, granting their citizens unprecedented rights to live, work, and move without restrictions.

The CARICOM Secretariat, in a statement on Monday, confirmed that nationals of these four states will be allowed to enter, leave, re-enter, reside, work, and remain indefinitely in each other’s territories without the need for work or residency permits. Citizens will also gain access to emergency and primary health care as well as public primary and secondary education, within the means of the host state.

The initiative stems from a decision taken at the 49th Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government earlier this year. Officials from the participating countries have since been working to ensure the legal and administrative measures are in place for the October rollout.

According to the Secretariat, the agreement falls under the Enhanced Cooperation Chapter of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which allows groups of at least three Member States to advance integration among themselves when certain objectives cannot be achieved within a reasonable period by the Community as a whole.

The Secretariat noted that this arrangement expands what is already offered under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). While the wider CSME continues to operate through regimes governing skills, services, business establishment, and facilitated travel, citizens of the four pioneering states will enjoy far broader rights.

CARICOM, established in 1973 with the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas and revised in 2001, now includes 15 Member States and six Associate Members, representing a population of about 16 million, 60 percent of whom are under 30 years old. Its work rests on four pillars: economic integration, foreign policy coordination, human and social development, and security cooperation.

The Secretariat has described the October launch as a “historic expansion” of the free movement principle within the region, signalling a deeper phase of integration that could eventually be adopted by the wider Community.