Prime Minister Mia Mottley has called for the creation of community-based parenting clubs and a national support hotline, warning that Barbados risks losing young people to an emerging gang culture unless families and communities act decisively.

Noting that gang culture has introduced a level of organised crime into the landscape that must not be tolerated, Mottley, who is also the minister of national security, said that the problem, while not as severe as in other parts of the region, was not one for the government alone to address.

She told House of Assembly that lawmakers and right-thinking Barbadians ought to coordinate parenting clubs and to create spaces for reasoning.