BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Jun 9, CMC – Barbados’ Ambassador to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), David Comissiong, Tuesday said that reports that nearly 15,000 people from three other CARICOM countries had taken up residency here were misleading, adding that the figure is just under 800.
Nationals of Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines can live, work, and travel freely across each other’s borders without the need for visas or work permits.
The agreement allowing for the “Full Free Movement” under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) took effect on October 1, 2025, under the Enhanced Cooperation Protocol to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Comissiong, speaking on the state-owned CBC TV, said that the nationals from the other CARICOM countries under the agreement who have decided to remain on the island are required to register with the Ministry of Labour, where they are issued with a Certificate of Indefinite Residence and Work.
“There was some confusing information because the Press put out the figure of nearly 15,000 people. Now, they got that figure of 15,000 from the Ministry of Home Affairs, who would have given them immigration figures for the numbers of people from St. Vincent, Dominica and Belize, who travel to Barbados.
“But you can’t take that figure. It is not everybody who travels to Barbados who exercises the right to become a permanent resident of Barbados. The vast majority of those people are just temporary visitors, maybe even people in transit.”
Comissiong said that since October 1 last year “that figure would be 776 people” noting that “even that figure is somewhat misleading, because the majority of that 776 are not people who have come into Barbados.
“Those were actually Vincies, Dominicans and Belizeans who were already living in Barbados and took the opportunity to regularise their status and get the certificate of indefinite residence and work,” he told television viewers.
The Barbadian diplomat said that there have been no issues with the initiative and that he has proposed bringing together all stakeholders shortly for a full analysis of the programme.
CMC/gh/ir/2026