Comissiong vows to champion CARICOM free movement as high commissioner

Ambassador to CARICOM David Comissiong has vowed to champion the CARICOM free movement regime among a quartet of member states when he becomes the non-resident high commissioner to Dominica next month, following the full rollout of the regime on October 1.

The envoy travels to Dominica in mid-January to present his credentials, completing the roster of participating nations in the free movement regime to which he has been formally accredited. 

“Once I accomplish that, it means that I would be Barbados’ non-resident high commissioner to all three countries that are involved in the free movement regime – that is Belize, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica. That would send a very positive signal about the way in which we want to now develop this relationship between these four countries,” he said.

Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada are the remaining CARICOM nations to receive Amb Comissiong as non-resident high commissioner, who presented credentials to Trinidad and Tobago in November. 

He pledged to promote the regime’s expansion by the quartet of states to counter the Caribbean’s brain drain and lure young people back to regional opportunities.

He noted that the initial rollout of the free movement regime with Barbados and the trio of CARICOM member states went smoothly thanks to years of careful planning and stakeholder engagement.

“We went into the regime very well prepared, and I have not received any complaints about any issues with how it has gone thus far. I intend in the new year to do some work in developing the regime, getting it to achieve its highest potential,” he said.

He touted the free movement regime as especially relevant for young people and hopes it will encourage them to explore opportunities across the region.

Amb Comissiong said: “We have to make our region so welcoming, so attractive, so rewarding, for our young people that more and more they see this region as the preferred place for them to seek out life and career opportunities and to really lay down their bucket right here.

“They can find life and career and job opportunities there and they could even begin to think of a Caribbean lifestyle where you’re not limited to any one particular CARICOM country.”

He emphasised the importance of educating young people about the benefits of the regime. A writer has been contracted by the foreign ministry to write a novel for teenagers about the CARICOM free movement, which will be used as an educational tool.

He said: “I think this regime is the most valuable for our young people and one of the things we are going to be doing in the new year, we have contracted a Barbadian author to produce a children’s novel, a young person’s novel, a young teenager’s novel, that will tell the story of the full free movement regime that we will use as a tool of education for our young people about the regime.”

He explained that one of his main priorities is encouraging regional travel to help combat the Caribbean’s brain drain.

“One of the big problems we suffer with in the Caribbean and in Barbados is the migration out of the region to North America and Europe of many of our citizens and, in the case of Barbados, particularly of young Barbadians with university or tertiary level education and training. So the very people that we should want to keep at home to play a role in the development of our country, we tend to be losing to North America and Europe.”

“We’re going to have to make our own region as attractive and as rewarding as possible, especially to our young people.”

One hurdle to regional travel, Amb Comissiong acknowledged, is the high cost of airline tickets.

“It is an open secret in CARICOM that transportation airline fees are much too high. It is an open secret that our governments made a mistake, many years ago when many of them applied multiple taxes to airline tickets, and I think it is fair to say that our governments have come to recognise that that was a mistake because sometimes more than 50% of the cost of the airline ticket comprises taxes,” he said.

He added that governments now need to explore alternative sources of revenue to replace the taxes.

Bilateral cooperation and people-to-people relations, he said, will also be key to deepening regional ties.

“Our general thinking should be across CARICOM that we should share our strengths with each other. So where we have strengths in Barbados that could be of benefit to our Dominican brothers and sisters, we should be willing to share, and likewise where Dominica has strengths that they can share with us, we should be willing to share, but I think this special relationship is really special at a people-to-people level.”

“I think what we really want to do is to encourage our people across the four territories to take full advantage of this full free movement regime, and that begins by having the willingness to explore.”

While Barbados and three countries have signed on to the regime so far, Comissiong noted that the others have expressed a willingness to join in the future.

“All CARICOM countries have committed to the free movement regime with the exception of the Bahamas, which is not a member of the CSME, so they have never participated in the goal of full free movement. Due to the current instability in Haiti, the CARICOM countries agreed that now would not be a suitable time for Haiti to participate in the regime. Antigua will not participate in the regime due to domestic political reasons. The others said: ‘OK, we will give you our blessings. You go ahead, you’ll be the pioneers. You put the regime in place, you perfect it, and we will join in the months and years ahead.’”

Reflecting on the past year, Ambassador Comissiong said that aside from Barbados’ successful hosting of CARIFESTA 15, 2025 has been the most productive year of his seven-year tenure as ambassador.