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Caribbean Con­gress of Labour gen­er­al sec­re­tary Michael An­nisette has wel­comed the de­ci­sion by Bar­ba­dos, Be­lize, Do­mini­ca and St Vin­cent to al­low full free move­ment among them­selves un­der Cari­com’s Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my (CSME), and called on all Cari­com states to ac­cel­er­ate ef­forts to­ward full CSME.

“We ex­tend our deep ap­pre­ci­a­tion to the four gov­ern­ments for their vi­sion­ary lead­er­ship. Their ex­am­ple reaf­firms that our Caribbean is stronger to­geth­er, and that in­te­gra­tion must re­main peo­ple-cen­tered, ground­ed in sol­i­dar­i­ty and the dig­ni­ty of work,” An­nisette said in a re­lease, not­ing that full free move­ment rights are not yet em­braced by all Cari­com Mem­ber States.

In wel­com­ing, the de­ci­sion by Bar­ba­dos, Be­lize, Do­mini­ca and St Vin­cent for to im­ple­ment full free move­ment among them­selves from Oc­to­ber 1, he added, “This pro­gres­sive step gives re­al mean­ing to the vi­sion of re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion, uni­ty, and so­cial jus­tice em­bed­ded in the Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas. It marks a defin­ing mo­ment in our jour­ney to­ward a tru­ly bor­der­less Caribbean, where cit­i­zens can move, work, and live freely across our re­gion.”