NASSAU, Bahamas — The Bahamas remains firmly against agreeing to the free movement of people in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister Dr. Hubert Minnis stressed at a town meeting in Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera, on Saturday, the Nassau Guardian reported March 11.
Minnis said that anyone seeking to work in The Bahamas can apply for a work permit.
“Now, I just came from a CARICOM meeting; it was a CARICOM meeting in St. Kitts,” Minnis said. “And we normally discuss quite a number of national and regional issues that would be important to us as a group. Sometimes it’s always best to work together; you get better results when you work together, and there were two important matters on the agenda.
“One matter that was on the agenda was very important to us and they were speaking and debating the issue of free movement of people.
“Free movement of people means that anyone can come into our country and commence working; professionals [and] non-professionals… I sat in those meetings and I said, ‘The Bahamas has a population of 350,000 to 400,000 people. There are some CARICOM nations that have in excess of 11 million people [and] there are others that have an excess of 2 million. I told them, on your behalf, that The Bahamas will not support free movement of people.” https://thenassauguardian.com/2019/03/11/bahamas-rejects-the-free-movement-of-people/?fbclid=IwAR2XHL5A3xaZvGsAc3xrjwFS6l7-iotId2q6fg08yVxFfdK1xHqnDqAXI8o
