In January 2016, the Government of Belize with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), held a preparatory meeting to assess the possibility to move towards the establishment of the Caribbean Migration Consultations (CMC), a Regional Consultative Process (RCP) in the Caribbean. The meeting was attended by representatives of eight Caribbean Governments.

Participating officials underlined that “coordinated policies in a regional level were necessary to ensure consistent approaches regarding common issues and that regional dialogue was not only cherished but essential”. On this basis, the CMC would work as a customized forum for the Caribbean countries that would provide them with a platform to discuss and coordinate migration-related topics. 

The following priority themes were identified by the delegates to discuss in the framework of the RCP in the course of 2016:

1. Data collection, information exchange and analysis on migration-related issues;

2. Need for systematic consultation on migration policies;

3. Need to share good practice on refugees and vulnerable migrants.

During this meeting in Belize, the participating countries agreed that the First Technical Workshop of the Caribbean Countries would take place in the second half of 2016 in Trinidad and Tobago. To this end, a workshop was held on 5-8 December 2016, in Port of Spain, organized by the Ministry of National Security of Trinidad and Tobago with the support of IOM and UNHCR.      

In the inauguration event, Charmaine Gandhi-Andrews, Chief Immigration Officer at the Ministry of National Security of Trinidad and Tobago, emphasized that regional cooperation is key for developing common approaches and to achieve tangible results that benefit all of the Caribbean. IOM Chief of Mission for Guyana and Regional Coordination Officer for the Caribbean, Robert Natiello, noted that “by identifying shared interests of its members and allowing a better understanding between the States, the RPCs promote interstate dialogue, exchange of information and collaborative approaches to migration governance”. 

In the framework of the First Technical Workshop, IOM facilitated a two-day event on border management and combatting migrant smuggling that gathered 31 senior border management officials from 16 Caribbean countries, including Cuba, Dominican Republic and Haiti. Officials from the United States and the Netherlands were also present, thus ensuring participation of two of the four continental countries with island territories in the Caribbean. The participation of CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS) and representatives of the Secretariat of the Regional Conference on Migration was well received.

During the workshop, participating States highlighted the need to develop and improve the Standard Operating Procedures, the importance of sharing information between the countries, and the need of having spaces for exchange, such as the CMC platform. IOM also presented an array of good practices in border management, including the Migration Information and Data Analysis System (MIDAS), border management software developed by the IOM that allows States to collect, process and record information for the purpose of identification of travelers, data collection, and analysis.

IOM also took an opportunity to display the upcoming CMC online platform developed with the purpose of stimulating the establishment of the RCO and boosting interaction between the participants. The platform was well received and approved by the delegates of the countries.

As the next step, participants agreed on the importance of strengthening a Regional Technical Network on human smuggling, to develop national and regional protocols on smuggling, and to exchange early warnings of migration flows. This new Regional Technical Network, among other activities identified by the Caribbean countries, such as the need to improve data collection on migration, will continue paving the way towards the consolidation of the CMC.

*This blog post was written by several officers of IOM Regional Office in San José.