By Charles Gladden
BELIZE CITY, Wed. Oct. 1, 2025
Starting this Wednesday, October 1, residents of four CARICOM countries will be able to travel freely to and from those participating countries under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) arrangement.
Those countries are Barbados, Belize, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica.
This decision was announced at the 49th Regular Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government.
In addition to the freedom of travel among the countries, skilled workers who are residents of Belize and those three other nations will be able to reside, work, and remain indefinitely, in the participating Member States, without needing a work or residency permit.
“Every CARICOM national has an automatic six-month stay, so that is a mini free movement. Now, what we’re doing is expanding that scope. You can now stay indefinitely. So, all member states that are participating have agreed that it would no longer be an automatic six-month stay upon arrival, but an automatic indefinite stay upon arrival,” said Tricia Gideon, Deputy Director General at the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
Under a previous skills regime, persons travelling to any CARICOM nation would have needed to acquire a skill certificate from their member state in their respective field. However, under the free movement arrangement, citizens of the four countries can freely travel to the other participating nations, as long as they hold a CARICOM passport.
Less than 400 persons from CARICOM nations are living in Belize under the work permit and skills arrangement that had previously been in place. Gideon believes that there will be an increase, but does not foresee overwhelming figures.
“As economists, we look at the numbers, and the numbers have shown historically that there are not a large number of people coming. Based on the statistics we got from Social Security, in 2024, we had 8 people from St. Vincent contributing to Social Security. When we look at Barbados, there were five people in 2004. When you look at Dominica, there were 15. The higher numbers are from Jamaica and Trinidad, and those numbers vary each year between 75 and 140, because those populations are bigger. So, we don’t expect a large number of people to come here. Historically, Caribbean people move to the north, not necessarily to another CARICOM member state. But we do expect an increase, but surely not one that will be overwhelming,” she said.
According to Gideon, persons arriving in Belize from the other CARICOM member states under the regime should be treated as Belizeans with access to social services.
