Barbados PM defends lifting of visa requirement for Haitians

Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Mottley addressing the opening ceremony of the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Jamaica yesterday. (DPI photo)

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley believes that a review of CARICOM’s purpose and objectives are “absolutely needed” if the region is “to avoid the nervousness of what the free movement of people means in a Caribbean” of large and small countries, and at a time when Bridgetown has removed visa restrictions for the people of Haiti.

In her maiden speech at the opening ceremony of the 39th Regular Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government held at Montego Bay Convention Centre, Jamaica, Mottley said to a loud round of applause, “My Cabinet has agreed to remove the visa requirements for Haiti because in our view it breaches the fundamental tenets that bind us under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.”