Regional travel – a hassle?

12.APR.11

On our front page last Friday, we carried a story outlining the problems faced by a young Vincentian woman with immigration authorities in Barbados, the country of birth of her two young children. She suffered the fate of deportation back to her homeland without even being able to see her daughter, who lives there with relatives.{{more}} Her woes come right on the heels on an on-going dispute between Barbados and Jamaica over the alleged mistreatment of a Jamaican woman by immigration authorities in the country of our neighbours to the east.

While Barbados is central to both cases, the experiences are not confined to that country. Indeed they bring into focus the whole issue of regional travel on a hassle-free basis for Caribbean citizens. Time and again our regional leaders meet and profess their commitment to the principle of freedom of movement of Caribbean citizens. The spoken and written words are but one side of it. What really matters to Caribbean people is the practical application of agreements reached in that regard. By that yardstick, we fall far short.

The single most determined attempt to address the long-standing problem was externally-driven. It came in 2007, when the complexities in intra-regional travel clashed with the demands of the cricket World Cup that we were hosting as a region. Then, we had no choice but to make arrangements to accommodate our responsibilities. Our people benefitted as a result, even if we did not always appreciate the wristbands we had to wear to entitle us to such relatively hassle-free travel.

Since then, (for it was only a temporary arrangement), much has been said of re-instituting such convenient agreements on a more permanent basis, but this is yet to be realised. Summit after summit of Heads of Government passes, but intra-regional travel continues to be our biggest bugbear. Why is this so? What are the apparent “insurmountable” obstacles in our way? Why is it that a normal law-abiding Vincentian faces more problems to enter his neighbouring state than some foreign country? Why is it that, after immigration requirements have been satisfied, customs officers for instance, beyond their legal authority to search baggage and belongings, arrogate unto themselves the authority of a second line of immigration?

These persistent problems complicate the achievement of the grand regional project -the implementation of a single regional market and economy. In order for this to make sense, not only must regional leaders be able to meet in St. Georges today, Georgetown tomorrow, and Kingstown the next day, not only must capital have the freedom to move at will, so too must our most precious resource-our people. The will to institute and operationalize the latter seems lacking.

As a result, the narrow chauvinist attitudes, adopted by many of our politicians to suit local circumstances, translate into the kinds of problems experienced at our ports of entry. We dare say that these are also at the heart of many of the problems impacting negatively on regional air travel. LIAT’s problems for instance, are not only financial, for many international mega-carriers face far greater financial challenges; it also is grounded in service, especially where Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda are concerned.

It is more than time for the Caribbean to wake up and face reality. Yes, we have problems of crime. Are they greater than those confronting mafia-ridden Italy? Yet, Italy is a member of the single-market European Union and a hassle-free zone within it, known as the Schengen states. Barbados may be especially notorious in the region, but it merely epitomises our failure as a community. Until we confront these challenges, all our best efforts at regional integration are bound to be plagued with frustration and torn apart by prejudices, born out of insularities.