BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) – Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley says the country will “open our doors with order and with pride” as Barbados joins three other Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries in fully implementing free movement of their nationals among themselves from today.

Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Belize and Dominica are implementing one of the major aspects of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the region.

The Guyana-based Caricom Secretariat said that extensive preparations have been undertaken to ensure “a smooth and secure rollout” of the full free movement among the four countries, adding that the other member states that participate in the CSME and have not signed on to full free movement “will continue to facilitate movement of their nationals under the existing regime for skilled workers, for the provision of services and the operation of businesses”.

In a nationwide radio and television broadcast on Tuesday night, Prime Minister Mottley acknowledged that Barbados is on the cusp of a change that will touch the lives of people across the Caribbean region and strengthen the nation.

“I know some of you feel excited. I also know that some of you do feel anxious. You have questions. You want to know exactly what will happen and how it will affect your family, your job, your children’s future,” she said, adding that “all of your questions and feelings are valid”.

During her broadcast, the prime minister gave a history of Barbados’ leadership within the regional integration movement, saying “we have had successive governments work fervently to build a regional integration project”.

She said all the various stakeholders were aware that “a small country like Barbados needed the regional integration project in order to do better for our people” and that the step being taken from October is practically nothing new, given that “the ties among the islands are not new, not strange, and definitely not to be feared”.

She said that the new step “supports jobs, supports public services, and supports our future” and that the nationals from Barbados and the three other Caricom countries “will be able to move among these states with the right to live, to work without a work permit, and to study on an indefinite basis.

“We call ourselves pioneers because we are putting in place a regime which I have every confidence that others in our Caribbean community will join in”.

Mottley outlined the procedures that will be implemented, allowing for the full free movement, including immigration status, even as she acknowledged that “any government may refuse entry to a person on the basis of public health concerns.

“As we learned recently, all of us in the COVID-19 pandemic. These principles remain in place. They are the guardrails of responsible regional integration. And believe me when I tell you that they will be applied should the need arise.

“Secondly, we operate within a regional security architecture that works every day and works professionally and has done so since 2007 for almost two decades,” she said, noting that the Caribbean became the first region to vet the names of all passengers against INTERPOL’s databases in 2007.

“We also vet against the United States databases at Homeland Security, and indeed the Caricom Regional Watch lists as a means of double and triple checking Barbadians. We are not closing our eyes and swiping.

We do not welcome criminality. We welcome contributions. We do not welcome abuse of our systems. That is the balance and that is the commitment I make to yo,u” Mottley said, adding that while cabinet has approved the policy framework, the bill should be laid at the next sitting of Parliament on October 7 for debate.

Mottley also spoke of the economic advantages of the new initiative, saying the fastest developing countries grow when people bring talent and energy and enterprise, and those that fall equally are those that turn inwards and refuse to recognise the need for skills to come in to help build out their country.

“We don’t only need investment and money for countries growth and development. We need people and skills. People who come to live and work here will fill that gap that exists, not force Bajans out of a job that will help our businesses to serve more customers. Create competition that benefits the consumer.

“They will rent homes or buy homes. They will buy from our shops. They will support local businesses. They will hire our tradesmen. They will go to our places of entertainment. This economic activity will benefit billions across the board. As we have seen in the past, this step also supports our public finances. Those who work will pay income tax,” she added.

Mottley said that at the risk of sounding like a stuck record, “I’ll say it again, Barbados, my friends, is urging that the number of people in their working years is declining. The number of seniors is rising. The number of persons being born has declined. It is expected that one in every two Bajans will be over the age of 65 years old.

“In less than 25 years. I ask you to think about what you were doing in the year 2000, when the centre changed, so that you can understand how close a horizon this is for us, because this is our reality.

“Yes, we all want our people to live longer, but it also places pressure on pensions and health costs and our workforce, and therefore we must maintain a strong base of contributors to the Social Security scheme, to the building out of this country, to keep our promises to our elders, and indeed, for our children to have a place that they can live in and hope to grow old in.

“Free movement among these four countries is therefore not the only answer, but it does go hand in hand with the other work that we are already doing to support our population strategy,” she added.

She also dismissed the notion that incoming workers should be exploited, saying the existing minimum wage regime, “which we settled a few years ago, will apply equally to those workers who come to Barbados under the full free movement…

“We are in the process also of expanding the human resource capacity of the Labour Department in order to effectively manage our current situation, as well as are expected growth, and to be able to appropriately police and enforce our labour laws.”

Mottley said that freedom of movement does not remove the need for individuals moving into a country to comply with the legal requirements.

“The professional services registrations must still be followed. Lawyers, for example, will still need a valid practising certificate. As with any profession that are regulated by legislation. It is not a one-way arrangement that benefits others and leaves Barbadians behind,” she stressed.

Mottley said that the move towards full free movement is “not a sudden leap into the unknown.

“ It is measured. It is managed. It is ours. My friends, in a world where many are building walls, the Caribbean must build bridges. We must never become what we say we despise. We must not allow fear and insecurity to define us. Barbados has led with courage and conviction on climate justice, on fair access to finance, on the dignity of small states, and, my friends, on the protection of migrants.

“In this moment, we lead again with the steady work of implementation. We are not naive. We are not careless. We are not unprepared. We are careful and compassionate. We will measure, we will review. And my friends, we will adjust where necessary. We do not expect perfection at the outset. This is how responsible nations govern. Let us look beyond rumour and beyond rhetoric,” Mottley told the nation.