Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

Multilateral in force

INTRODUCTION

The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) was established on 1 August 1973, with the entry into force of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. CARICOM did not include the free movement of people as one of its objectives; it had a saving clause confirming that Member States had no obligation to admit nationals of other Member States (Article 38, 1973 Treaty). Starting on 31 July 1989, with the Grand Anse Declaration, the Conference of Heads of Government (Conference)—the main body of the Community responsible for setting its policy (Articles 6 and 8, 1973 Treaty)—began adopting a series of Declarations to enable the free movement of specific groups of skilled nationals. In 1995, the Conference agreed on the unrestricted movement of graduates of regional universities to work in any Common Market State. In 1996, it proposed extending this to artists, sportspersons, musicians, and media workers as early as possible.

The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas Establishing the Caribbean Community, including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), was adopted on 5 July 2001. It entered into force on 1 January 2006. Bahamas has not ratified the Treaty of Chaguaramas and thus does not apply the free movement of people regime (Aragón and IOM 2019, p. 47). Haiti has ratified the Treaty but has never implemented the CSME. However, some CARICOM Member States give special treatment to citizens of the Bahamas, as well as to those of Haiti (Acosta and Harris 2022, p. 25). Since Haiti has ratified the Treaty, its nationals are also entitled to an automatic six-month stay upon arrival in CARICOM Member States, subject to the rights of CARICOM Member States to refuse entry to undesirable persons or those who might become a charge on public funds. However, this is not respected in practice, and most Member States demand a visa from Haitians.

Articles 45 and 46 enshrined the free movement of certain categories of skilled community nationals. Five categories were initially included: university graduates, media workers, sportspersons, artists, and musicians. The Conference later progressively enlarged these categories, in line with the powers granted to do so under Article 46(4) of the Revised Treaty, to include teachers, nurses, domestic workers with Caribbean vocational qualification certificates (CVQs), artisans with CVQs, persons with associate degrees or CAPE or ‘A’ levels, agricultural workers, and security guards (Párraga and IOM, 2021, p. 49). The definitions of each category as of August 2024 are included in this document produced by the CARICOM Secretariat.

CARICOM nationals willing to work in another Member State must apply for a skills certificate from the relevant authorities. Once obtained, the individual is granted work authorisation and can apply for indefinite stay depending on the country that provided the skills certificate (Lacarte et al., 2023, p. 22). If the skills certificate was granted by the receiving country, the individual must be allowed indefinite entry. A CARICOM National entering another Member State with a Skills Certificate issued by a different Member State must be granted definite entry for six months and has the right to work immediately. However, the authorities in the receiving country must verify the skills certificate within a six-month period. After this, the individual will be able to apply for indefinite stay, in accordance with the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) administrative arrangements and procedures for the free movement of skills adopted on 1 September 2006. COTED is a Ministerial Council, and under Article 29 of the Treaty, decisions made by Ministerial Councils are legally binding.

Community nationals also have the right to establish and provide services in other Member States (Articles 33 and 37, 2001 Treaty). According to various studies – available below under the further reading section – several implementation challenges exist. The Freemove project does not assess implementation at the domestic level.

In 2018, CARICOM adopted the Protocol on Contingent Rights, followed by a Declaration of Intent signed by some Member States to provisionally apply it. According to the CARICOM Secretariat (email exchange 2023), all countries except Jamaica and Suriname—and, of course, the Bahamas—have ratified or signed the Protocol. For this project, we understand that from 1 January 2020, these Member States will be bound by the Protocol and need to offer the nationals of other Member States the rights enshrined in the Protocol’s Article II.

Two further clarifications are in order. First, it is worth noting that CARICOM does not publish all Conference decisions. Decisions by the Conference of Heads of Government are immediately binding at the Community level from the moment of their adoption, in line with CARICOM’s Court of Justice (CCJ) jurisprudence (Article 28(1), 2001 Revised Treaty; CCJ Application No. OA 002 of 2012, Shanique Myrie, para 55). Some Decisions are published in a repository. Otherwise, we have had to rely on official communiqués or press releases. This has obvious negative implications for legal certainty and the rule of law in general, which go beyond this project’s scope. Second, CARICOM represents a penumbral case in our project since its regime only offers mobility rights to specific categories of skilled workers, as opposed to all nationals. We nonetheless decided to include it because of the ancillary rights its regime offers through its Protocol on Contingent Rights and because of the important jurisprudence developed by the CARICOM Court of Justice on the matter. Moreover, at its 45th meeting in July 2023, the Conference agreed “to work towards the free movement of all CARICOM nationals within the Community by 31 March 2024”. Such a deadline was not met, and CARICOM continues to work on this issue.

On 1 October 2025, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines began implementing the full free movement of people among themselves.

MEMBER STATES

ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA (1974)
BAHAMAS (1983)
BARBADOS (1973)
BELIZE (1974)
COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA (1974)
GRENADA (1974)
GUYANA (1973)
HAITI (2002)
JAMAICA (1973)
SAINT KITTS AND NEVIS (1974)
SAINT LUCIA (1974)
SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES (1974)
SURINAME (1995)
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO (1973)

Montserrat is also a Member State, but we do not include it in our dataset because it is a British overseas territory and not a member of the United Nations.

HEADQUARTERS

Georgetown, Guyana.

DATE OF CREATION

1 August 1973.

TIMELINE

1973	Adoption of the Treaty of Chaguaramas on 4 July.
1989	Adoption by the Conference of the Grand Anse Declaration for the advancement of the integration movement on 31 July.
2001	Adoption of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas on 5 July.
2002	Entry into force of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas on 1 January.
2007	The Conference adopted a Decision on 4 July agreeing that CARICOM nationals are entitled to an automatic stay of six months upon arrival to another Member State, subject to the rights of Member States to refuse undesirable persons entry and to prevent persons from becoming a charge on public funds.
2009	The Conference adopted a Decision on 5 July allowing spouses of principal beneficiaries, who have exercised the right of free movement of skills, provision of services or right of establishment, the right to work without a work permit.
2018	Adoption of the Protocol on Contingent Rights on 6 July.
2018	Declaration of Intent to provisionally apply the Protocol on Contingent Rights on 4 December.
2023	Agreement by the Conference on 5 July to work towards the free movement of all CARICOM nationals within the Community by 31 March 2024.

KEY LEGAL DOCUMENTS

Treaty Establishing the Caribbean Community, including the Caribbean Common Market Annex, Chaguaramas, 4 July 1973.

Revised Treaty of Chaguramas Establishing the Caribbean Community including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, Nassau, 5 July 2001, entry into force 4 February 2002.

Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) administrative arrangements and procedures for the free movement of skills adopted on 1 September 2006.

Conference of the Heads of Government, Communiqué issued at the Conclusion of the Twenty-Eighth Meeting of the Conference, 1-4 July, Needham’s Point, Barbados, 5 July 2007.

Conference of the Heads of Government, Communiqué issued at the Conclusion of the Thirtieth Regular meeting of the Conference, 2-5 July, Georgetown, Guyana, 6 July 2009.

Protocol on Contingent Rights, Montego Bay, Jamaica, 6 July 2018.

Declaration of Intent to provisionally apply the Protocol on Contingent Rights, Port of Spain, Trinidad, 4 December 2018.

Conference of the Heads of Goverment, Decisions issued at the end of the Thirty-Ninth Regular Meeting, 4-6 July 2018, Montego Bay, Jamaica.

CARICOM COURT OF JUSTICE

CARICOM Court of Justice, Application No. OA 002 of 2012, Shanique Myrie, 4 October 2013.

CARICOM Court of Justice, Consolidated Applications No. OA 1 of 2013 and OA 2 of 2013, Maurice Tomlinson, 10 June 2016.

CARICOM Court of Justice, Advisory Opinion No AOOJ2019/001, 18 March 2020.

ADDITIONAL LEGAL AND POLICY DOCUMENTS

Conference of Heads of Government, Grand Anse Declaration and work programme for the advancement of the integration movement, 31 July 1989, Grand Anse, Grenada.

Conference of Heads of Government, Communiqué issued at the Conclusion of the Sixteenth Meeting of the Conference, 4-7 July, Georgetown, Guyana, 8 July 1995.

Conference of Heads of Government, Communiqué issued at the Conclusion of the Seventeenth Meeting of the Conference, 3-6 July, Bridgetown, Barbados, 7 July 1996.

Conference of Heads of Government, Decisions issued at the Conclusion of the Thirtieth inter-sessional Meeting of the Conference, 26-27 February 2019, Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis.

Conference of Heads of Government, Decisions issued at the Conclusion of the Fortieth Regular Meeting of the Conference, 3-5 July 2019, Gros Islet, Saint Lucia.

Conference of Heads of Government, Decisions issued at the Conclusion of the Forty-Third Regular Meeting of the Conference, 3-5 July 2022, Paramaribo, Suriname.

Conference of Heads of Government, Communiqué issued at the Conclusion of the Forty-Fifth Regular Meeting, 3-5 July, Trinidad and Tobago, 6 July 2023.