After pulling out of the proposed Caribbean Single Market and Economy, The Bahamas will not be included in the new Caricom passport system, Foreign Minister Fred Mitchell has announced.
Roosevelt Skerrit, prime minister of Dominica, told reporters at the Caricom heads meeting earler in the week that the passport would allow free movement of Caricom nationals throughout the region. He said every Caricom state would have to introduce the passport system.
(Mr Skerrit, 33, a former minister of education and one of the youngest heads of government in the world, succeeded Dominican Prime Minister Pierre Charles, who died on January 6, 2004).
According to Mr Mitchell, neither the passport system nor the free movement of people “will apply to the Bahamas because we indicated that the national debate on the question of our signing the revised treaty of Chaguaramas has come to an end and we don’t propose to go any further.”
Speaking yesterday during a press briefing at Nassau International Airport’s VIP lounge yesterday, after returning from the Caricom heads meeting in St Lucia, Mr Mitchell continued: “It’s just interesting information to see and obesrve but it will not apply to the Bahamas.
“…A common passport really amounts to national passports being stamped with the logo of Caricom,” he explained.
He said other countries in the regional bloc were speeding up the implementation of the passport to integrate travel during the 2007 Cricket World Cup, which will have several Caricom countries as its venue.
Suriname will reportedly be the first country to begin issuing the Caricom passport this year, Mr Mitchell advised.
By: Raymond Kongwa, The Nassau Guardian
