Governments seek solution to impasse
The Jamaica government says more than 300 nationals were deported from Trinidad and Tobago last year, and that more than 100 have been denied entry into the oil rich Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country during the first quarter of this year.
Foreign Affairs and Foreign trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith told the Senate last Friday that 326 Jamaicans were denied entry to the twin-island republic in 2015 and that 113 Jamaicans have so far been denied entry during the first three months of this year.
The two CARICOM countries have been holding talks in a bid to deal with the situation, particularly after Port of Spain deported 12 Jamaicans last month, claiming that they would have been a drain on the local economy. Port of Spain has said that several thousand Jamaicans are living there illegally. Both countries are signatories to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, services, labor and skills across the 15-member regional group. The Foreign Minister said that Jamaica has sought to deal with the issue at both the bilateral and regional levels, and that following talks with Port of Spain, a commitment had been given by the Trinidad and Tobago government to resolve the issue “as expeditiously as possible.”
She told legislators that at the regional level Jamaica requested that the item “Treatment of CARICOM Nationals Travelling in the Region” be returned to the agenda of the recent meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), which has oversight for the implementation of the CSME. Johnson Smith said that Kingston had used the occasion at the meeting to call for full implementation of the decisions taken at the 39th Session of COTED held in November 2014. Those decisions identified steps to be taken by member states and the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat to ensure that the CSME free movement regime operates in the interest of all CARICOM nationals.
