Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
MOTTLEY
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts and Nevis:
CARICOM LEADERS have reached agreement on a regional security infrastructure for intelligence sharing and cooperation for Cricket World Cup 2007, as well as measures to ensure hassle-free movement for visitors travelling between host countries.
Mia Mottley, Attorney-General and Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados, who chairs the Cricket World Cup security committee, made the announcement during a press conference here yesterday. She was hosting the briefing with Dr. Peter Phillips, Jamaica's Minister of National Security, who is in charge of resource mobilisation for the event, and Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, who holds the CARICOM security portfolio.
Ms. Mottley said people would be able to travel within the nine host countries and Dominica between January 15 and May 15 with a single CARICOM visa (with a single stamp on the first point of entry), what she called a 'golden period'.
"We believe also that it will enable us also, even after these games, a much more secure Caribbean environment so we can tell everyone, all the people who are planning to come to Cricket World Cup, that they will have a safe and secure environment in which to enjoy the hospitality of the Caribbean," Dr. Phillips said.
He said a review would be conducted into the freedom of movement to benefit CARICOM nationals within the region as well as the security and intelligence measures during the Cricket World Cup.
"There will be complete freedom of movement within the Caribbean, travelling for anyone, which would be no different for arguments sake than for someone who, when flying into New York and then onto Miami or another port within the United States of America, which is treated as a single domestic space," said Ms. Mottley of the 'golden period.'
She said passports would not be stamped, although people should still travel with them and would still need to submit entry and departure forms upon arrival.
