Barbados has received a lot of licks from many quarters on the immigration issue. Come January 1, 2010 the much discussed amnesty will expire and illegal immigrants residing in Barbados before January 1, 1998 who have not processed an application will be deported. A recent poll by CADRES indicated Barbadians across the political spectrum were supportive of government’s new immigration policy. The Auditor General of Barbados confirmed the fears of many Barbadians that the system of managing people flows in and out of Barbados is inefficient.

One of the disappointments since the Barbados government rolled out its Green Paper on immigration has been the lack of serious feedback by stakeholders in civil society and ordinary Barbadians. It was embarrassing to listen to a callin program on Voice of Barbados yesterday (27 December 2009) when leading voices in Barbados asked if they had read the Green Paper on immigration admitted they had not.

Immigration matters continue to occupy many countries around the world especially those countries labelled as magnet countries. In all the emotion which has been attached to the issue of Barbados immigration, many of the players in the debate admit a managed immigration policy is a must; BU’s position all along.

One of the hot button issues which many Barbadians reacted to was Prime Minister David Thompson agreeing at the heads of Caricom meeting held in Guyana in July 2009, to include household domestics among the categories of workers allowed to move freely in the region under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.  Many commenters on BU believed that it was a backdoor move to appease Guyana’s President Jagdeo and Prime Minister Ralph Gonzales of St. Vincent who were very anti-Barbados in their public pronouncements on the immigration matter.

It is interesting to read a report emanating from Guyana that the government is not yet ready to start issuing skill-certificates to domestics wishing to travel to other Caricom member states to ply their trade and none of the relevant agencies could give a timeframe for readiness. The report gives the certain impression that the Guyana government is not in a position anytime soon to be able to issue the Caribbean Vocational Qualification (CVQ) or equivalent which is requires for domestics to move freely in Caricom. Barbadians who disagree with the Thompson government for agreeing to the issuing of skill certificates to domestics maybe happy at the latest notes. Guyana’s as the main proposer of the activation of the new skills category makes their non-compliance laughable. Bear in mind Guyana has accused Barbados as being non-CSME compliant. It is clear our regional leaders and by extension the Caricom/CSME Secretariat is a joke.

The free movement of labour in CSME will not fly if the issues of trade and settlement are not discussed on the same agenda. Come next month some of us will be watching closely how the Barbados government delivers on its promise to rollout the new immigration policy to managed it borders.