KINGSTON – The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade has been working with its regional counterparts to resolve some of the problems that frustrate travellers within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Under the CSME, skilled persons are entitled to move and work freely throughout the region once granted a CARICOM Recognition of Skills Qualification.
These include university graduates, media practitioners, artistes, sportspersons, managers, technical and supervisory staff attached to a company, domestic workers and self-employed persons.
Work is being spearheaded by the Ministry’s Trade Agreement Implementation Coordination Unit, responsible for directing and monitoring Jamaica’s obligations under the CSME.
Head of the unit, Symone Betton-Nayo, tells JIS News discussions have been held with officials in Barbados.
In March, Betton-Nayo was in the island for a five-day visit to observe CSME-related activities.
This was under a focal point exchange programme organised by the CARICOM Secretariat, aimed at promoting greater understanding of the CSME among member states.
While there, she met with senior government officials as well as officers of the Immigration Department, and the Barbados Accreditation Council (BAC), which is responsible for verifying skills certificates.
“That joint meeting was very, very useful because they are both two critical entities to the free movement process,” she notes.
Betton-Nayo, who is also the CSME Focal Point for Jamaica, tells JIS News efforts were made to address some of the challenges faced by Jamaicans to get their skills certificates verified when moving to Barbados.
CARICOM nationals can apply for a skills certificate in the host or home state under the CARICOM Free Movement of Persons Act, 1997.
“I raised the issue of the verification process, the length of time it takes to verify but not only that, the process of verification, which appears to be costly and time consuming,” Betton-Nayo points out.
She explains that the skills certificates issued by Jamaica would already have gone through “the rigours of our application system” and they are all signed by the Minister of Labour and Social Security.
“So, you must be able to trust that whatever certificate goes through that system, it is bona fide, it is authentic and on the basis of that (the host country) should be able to now carry out its verification function rather than having to repeat that process through its own verification system,” she points out.
She says the slow verification process was acknowledged by the Barbadian officials, but they also emphasised the importance of carrying out “quality infrastructure functions”.
The CSME Focal Point for Barbados, Paula Byer, had visited Jamaica on a similar mission to hold meetings with public and private sector entities administering the five CSME regimes, namely: the free movement of goods, the free movement of skills, the free movement of capital, the provision of services, and the right of establishment.
There have also been successes in addressing the problem of nationals being denied entry to Trinidad and Tobago. (JIS)