Sen. Johnson Smith’s Response – Free Movement in CARICOM
By: , July 15, 2016The Key Point:
Photo: Mark Bell
Leader of Government Business in the Senate and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, highlights a point while piloting the Interpretation (Amendment) Act, 2016, in the Senate on Friday (July 15).The Facts
- I am pleased to answer Senator Golding's questions, and to provide some helpful context as well.
- With respect to the flow of Trinidad and Tobago nationals into Jamaica, according to our Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA), 12,875 were granted entry into Jamaica in the same year.
The Full Story
Mr President,
The Leader of Opposition Business, Senator Golding, posed some questions to me at the 20th May and 1st July 2016 sittings of the Senate concerning the issue of free movement in the Caribbean Community. He was interested specifically in the number of
Jamaican nationals who were granted entry into Trinidad and Tobago in 2015, and the number of nationals from that country who were granted entry into Jamaica in the same year. I apologise for the delay in reverting to the Senate with the requested information but we had to confer with the authorities of Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica in order to provide precise figures.
Mr President,
I am pleased to answer Senator Golding’s questions, and to provide some helpful context as well. Based on information received from the Ministry of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago, 16,826 Jamaican nationals were granted
entry into Trinidad and Tobago in 2015. With respect to the flow of Trinidad and Tobago nationals into Jamaica, according to our Passport, Immigration and Citizenship Agency (PICA), 12,875 were granted entry into Jamaica in the same year.
Mr President, the data tells us a few things- including that relative to the size of its population, a greater percentage of nationals from Trinidad and Tobago (0.9%) entered Jamaica in 2015, than Jamaican nationals (0.57%) who entered Trinidad and Tobago in the same year. (Jamaica – 2.95 million as compared to Trinidad at 1.35 million).