| 'Clear Skies' as CARICOM Single Space Travel Begins |
By BBC - Caribbean
February 3, 2007
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BRIDGETOWN , Barbados , CMC – Apart from a brief technical glitch which prevented the examination of passports, all of the airports across the region reported success as 10 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries on Thursday began testing a single domestic space. |
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| “There was a technical glitch this morning and as a result of that there was limited examination of passports,” Mia Mottley, Chair of the CARICOM Sub-Committee for Cricket World Cup Security told reporters. |
| “Once those technical glitches are overcome then we will move to the full stage of persons just submitting their ID Cards and walking through immigration, which is the ultimate intent of where we want to be,” Mottley added. |
| The single domestic space was created to facilitate the upcoming ICC Cricket World Cup 2007 to be held in the region from March 5 to April 28. |
| Antigua , Barbados , Grenada , Guyana , Jamaica , St. Kitts , St. Lucia , St. Vincent and Trinidad are hosting World Cup matches and they are joined by Dominica in the single Domestic space. |
| “There is no doubt in my mind…that this is a mammoth exercise and its scale is perhaps unparalled certainly in modern independent history of the region in terms of seeking to harmonise the actions of 10 countries across multiple agencies, namely customs, immigration, police, in some instances military, port health, not the mention of course the regulatory ministries in which those agencies also find themselves,” Mottley said. |
| “From today until the 21st of February is effectively being treated as a training and testing period to work out challenges and listen to the perspectives of Caribbean people across the region who are experiencing this exercise to hear what their feelings are to see if we can improve the system,” she said. |
| With the implementation of the single domestic space, CARICOM nationals, except those living in Haiti, are now able to travel easily throughout the region and would only require security checks at their first port of entry. At that port, an armband bearing the CARICOM logo is placed on the hand of travellers, eliminating the need for further screening at the other ports of entry. |
| Miss Mottley said regional heads recognise that there would be challenges, but have given themselves three weeks to refine the processes, “such that when we welcome the world to our backyard for Cricket World Cup, we will do so as a region and as a people, ready to be able to show off the best that we have.” |
| Mottley who is also Barbados’ Deputy Prime Minister said that the people of the Caribbean could rest assured that stringent security measures are in place to prevent any compromise of the region’s security. |
| “I want to give you and the region, the assurance, that we will do nothing at all to compromise the security of the region while we get the ease of movement working correctly,” Mottley said. |
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