(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Guyana President, His Excellency President Bharrat Jagdeo said the treatment meted out to some Caribbean nationals by immigration officers at some Caribbean ports of entry was posing a direct threat to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Addressing the Opening Ceremony of the Twenty-Ninth Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government in Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday 1 July 2008, President Jagdeo said the CSME would fail if some immigration officers persist in unnecessary harassment of Caribbean peoples who attempt to exercise their right within the Community.
“What I find most disturbing is not the issue of the denial of entry of CARICOM citizens at the various ports of entry of the Community but the humiliation suffered at the hands of some immigration officers at these ports,” the Guyana President explained.
He added that when the integration movement was initiated, the people of the Region were at the centre of the process primarily because they are an essential pillar of the CSME and “it was in recognition of this that we decided to fast track arrangements for the unrestricted movement of our people throughout the Region.”
However, he lamented that the very opposite was happening and some CARICOM citizens could not enjoy one of the basic rights of hassle free travel as enshrined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
“One of the tragic truths is that we treat foreigners better than we treat our own people,” the President bewailed.
He acknowledged that while every Member State had a sovereign right to address what might be legitimate security concerns, harassment of Caribbean nationals was unacceptable, and warned that the CSME would be a failed enterprise if CARICOM nationals were not treated in a dignified manner.
The CARICOM Summit continues until Friday 4 July with a slate of issues on its agenda, including tourism, regional security, food security, climate change, the Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Caribbean Development Fund (CDF).
