ROSEAU, Dominica, CMC – Immigration ministers from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have ended a meeting here discussing the issue of contingent rights for persons not born within the sub-regional grouping.
“That is to say you may be married to a national who is not an OECS national, and going forward, as we seek to create an avenue for our people to travel within the sub-region with less hassle,” said the chairman of the Council of Immigration Ministers of the OECS, Rayburn Blackmoore, noting that this had become important given the fact that OECS nationals and their spouses can reside, work and own property in the sub-region.
St. Kitts-Nevis Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs and Justice Garth Wilkins said the issue of contingent rights is a contentious issue that the leaders of the sub-region will further discuss.
“The most important is the relation to the contingent rights. With the revised treaty of Chaguaramas, we have agreed to have one economic space and one workspace so that you can leave Dominica, come into St. Kitts-Nevis, set up shop, open your business (and) work without a work permit.
“So with that, the next step is potentially allowing family members, not citizens of the OECS, to take advantage of those rights. Of course, that is a contentious issue. So we are in the maturing stages of the discussion,” he said.
Wilkin said that the meeting here was intended to get the views of the immigration technocrats and the related ministers on that matter so that it could go to the heads for a decision.
Blackmoore said the meeting also discussed the issue of simplifying embarkation and disembarkation forms as well as the continued strengthening of the borders of the sub-regional grouping.
“As you know, in Dominica and some other member states, we have done away with ED forms …and we have simplified the ED forms for non-nationals, and we have also simplified the Customs declaration forms.
“Going forward, we think there is also a need to completely remove those forms….so that too will be an option going before the heads,” the Dominica Justice, Immigration and National Security Minister told reporters.
The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Kitts-Nevis, Montserrat, Anguilla, and the British Virgin Islands.
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