CARIBBEAN-CARICOM highlights progress made on the first anniversary of free movement under enhanced cooperation.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – One year after Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries agreed to free movement under enhanced cooperation, they are reporting that just over 900 nationals have been granted indefinite stay in the participating countries.

Barbados, Belize, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in their report say that the regime is operational and is facilitating increased mobility, employment and access to specified services for CARICOM nationals of the four participating member states.

“The experience of these four participating member states demonstrates that free movement works. Their progress, lessons and emerging best practices provide a roadmap for other member states who are preparing to join Free Movement allowed by CARICOM Heads of Government under Enhanced Cooperation,” said Ambassador Wayne McCook, the Assistant Secretary-General, CARICOM Single Market and Trade, at the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat.

He said CARICOM’s committed to ensuring the regime is accessible, predictable, and responsive to the needs of Community nationals as implementation moves into its second year.

The free movement arrangement among the four began on October 1, 2025, allowing their nationals to enter and remain indefinitely in those countries, work without a work permit, and access specified services under national arrangements.

The move was intended to speed up participation in the wider CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which allows the free movement of goods, skills, labor and services across the 15-member regional integration grouping.

“By implementing the full free movement regime, these 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,” the CARICOM Secretariat said then.

It added that 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),

The Secretariat, in a report on Tuesday, said it is confirmed that all four participating member states have introduced or advanced legislative, administrative and institutional measures to facilitate entry, residence, employment and access to specified contingent rights.

It said Barbados processed 918 applications from 1 October to 31 July 2026, and that “implementation has generally proceeded smoothly, supported by inter-agency coordination and public-information activities”.

In Belize, which granted free movement status to 146 beneficiaries, nine subsequently registered with the Social Security Board.

The Secretariat said Dominica has processed five applications, while St. Vincent and the Grenadines has facilitated seven applications.
“This makes a total of 939 persons processed, some of whom were already residing in the member states before 1 October 2025,” the Secretariat said.

It said that while the first year has shown meaningful progress, “implementation reports also identify areas requiring further attention across participating member states, particularly in registration, data collection and management, monitoring and reporting, public awareness and stakeholder sensitization.”