CARICOM to Advance Regional Approach to Migration

Patrice Quesada

Earlier this month, several United Nations agencies met with CARICOM in response to a decision taken in 2019 by the Heads of Government of CARICOM to create a regional migration policy.  The UN Network on Migration acquainted the group with the use of a guiding tool for developing an effective regional migration policy for CARICOM, which is purposefully aligned to the region’s ambition of achieving free movement of citizens within the Caribbean Community in 2024.  Patrice Quesada is the Coordinator for the Caribbean, under the International Organization for Migration.

Patrice Quesada, Coordinator for the Caribbean, IOM

“Basically what we have now is probably the best configuration that we can have, the best group that comes together to support that process.  We have the CARICOM institutions, we have the UN sister agency and the support from the network, the UN Network on Migration.  We have other experts that are joining the process, and we also have, and I would also like to thank also, the member of the IOM team that has been able to put this event together in such a short timeframe. What it will help us is to guide us through the process of developing common knowledge, common vision using the Global Compact on Migration, using it as a sort of lighthouse to steer us in the right direction.  That’s an important one because this document is basically the highest level of consensus ever reached among all the member states of the UN system on migration issues and it’s truly a goldmine with a lot of information as we expand our vision on what is migration.”