Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre has rejected suggestions of a link between the free movement of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nationals and crime.
CARICOM Heads of Government decided at their recent summit in Trinidad and Tobago on free movement for all their nationals by March 2024.
The decision goes beyond the current CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) regime of free movement of agreed categories of skilled nationals.
But Prime Minister Pierre dismissed as a ‘cop out’, concerns that the new free movement initiative would facilitate criminals travelling through the region.
“Criminals have been moving all their lives. Have you ever seen a criminal with a visa? Again that’s a cop-out. There’s absolutely no relationship between crime and free movement of people,” Pierre told reporters earlier this week.
And he declared that criminals would move regardless.
“What we want is to expand the market, expand the region because we need to get to a single market and economy where we can have investment of capital, free movement of capital and free movement of people,” Pierre explained.
“Have you ever seen a criminal with a visa?” Jeeez Man, who is coaching the PM…… I think the PM needs to Watch what he eats.
Cop-out my ass. We can’t control crime locally, regionally or internationally when we have criminals in power. This is a genuine concern with an absolutely ridiculous response from a national security minister. He’s always there to normalize or trivialize things, but the fact is these buffoons in power have idea how to lead since all they do is follow. A bunch of weak leaders in this age.
Pierre is also a moron. Pierre also promised us the world. So….
In st.lucia murderers don’t get caught. So, if I was a criminal, I would move to st.lucia right away, bringing all my criminal buddies, the boat load with guns, when we touch land in st.lucia we kissing the sand, we hollering free, free, now we can kill anybody we want, because in st.lucia, the police don’t arrest murderers. The tourist have a royal st.Lucian protection service, that the st.Lucian people pay for.
Lol..the 5 star General said no correlation between free movement of nationals and crime! Well hot damn, we are doomed here in Martinique that is in Europe!
“Have you ever seen a criminal with a visa?” LOL No that one take the cake. Is he telling us something about someone in his cabinet of ministers?? SMH. I tell u every time this man speaks I wonder if he has gone senile. He should keep quiet. Just now he might say Marchand is in Jamaica or something like Marchand is the capital of the Caribbean. Who Knows.
Is he saying that RF is a criminal?🙄🤔…he’s response is so unintelligent….sometimes he should just hush!
Dat was spelling bar….his…afterall I can’t call someone remark as unintelligent and then make fopar when there’s heavy critics taking notes.
Campton was the driven force for the formation of the OECS after the collapse of the Federation. For Pierre to exit power and have something pin to his name is to basically take this initiatives seriously and model it so that the other Caricom member of states who want to still believe that they are superior to others. Pierre should fast drive this home ASAP by choosing one or two other Caricom member states and expedite free movement between those member states. Space will not permit to elaborate but let commonsense prevails, untied we stand, divided we fall!
Bravo Mr pm that’s just what we need?you useless man
We need to be able to visualize things before they happen. If we had that ability, particularly in our leadership at home and the region at large, we would be more proactive. The West Indies Federation failed because a pair of the larger islands did not want to be the ATM for the less resourceful smaller islands. Today, those same ones are eager to unleash their uncontrollable criminals to these more vulnerable smaller people islands. Skillful and settled citizens in the region will hardly move. Those who move, will quicker go to North America if given a chance, where the pastures are much greener. The ones most likely to move are the hungry, the criminals and whoever is on the run. Our security situation here on island cannot absorb a single more criminal, fearless an influx which is anticipated.
While I have no issue with regional integration, there is something that must be said with structure and organisation in caricom countries. First, a state must be able to have infrastructure in place to deal with the increase traffic of caricom nation’s….that includes healthcare, school places, housing, jobs, and more importantly now catching criminals and by the looks of it Saint Lucia does not have the infrastructure in place to deal with influx of Caricom nations. If you can’t even catch your home grown criminals or solve those murders how do expect to catch a foreigner whom you don’t know?…your police force must be up to date, have the latest in crime fighting tech, forensics, drone surveillance, CCTV, numberplate recognition systems, etc etc….again I am not against regional integration but you must put your house in order before inviting strangers….the pee em again displays nationally, regionally and internationally how inept he is at his job …sounds uneducated and out of his depth….
That’s why y’all will always not like Chas. I remember when he insisted that he would not put a dime into LIAT untill they got their house in order. Now look at us pushing a Caricom agenda when our house is not even in order. Vieux Fort magistrates court closed for 18 months and we say we are serious about crime fighting. But hey, party and forget your problems!
@C-Wiz and @Mind’s Eye are so right. In theory it might be a good thing for some islands, but St Lucia is not up to accepting more people. It does not have the infrastructure, nor a Public Service with the will or ability to deal with an influx of other Caricom Nationals. And as some have rightly said, they will not be the cream of the crop. We haven’t got jobs for our own young, and not so young men. Why would we want more?. Can’t see any businesses wanting to invest here right now (2024?!) either…
Mr pm no one drinks a panadòl for someone else’s headache so figure this out?
Give it a few months, our Lucian criminals will be in other islands committing crime. If any country is wary of criminals entering it is not St.lucia, the rest of the islands are probably afraid of us coming in. And yes I have seen many criminals with a VISA. I thought Pierre was smarter than that. The more he talk the more I realising this man had no business being Prime Minister
Someone should E-Mail him some of these comments and hope he can make sense out of them. His advisor/s too should take this very seriously, this is not a game to play with, because you haven’t seen anything yet…..THINK.!!!!!!
There we go again putting foot in mouth every time he speaks. My goodness why oh why did we as a people made such a blinder in electing such at the highest office, my fellow Lucians we have truly let our beloved 758 down my our poor judgement a couple years ago when we made this change in administration. For heavens sake, you are the pm please get it right for once. It’s heart wrenching hearing him make these I learnt statements.
“have you ever seen a criminal with a visa” ou bien fet.
First of all Mr Pierre who is not a policeman, your father was one, nobody in caricom needs a visa to travel between the islands.
Yes Mr Pierre, three words; ” there are criminals with visas”
Mr Pierre we must watch criminals who move between the islands but we cannot, in this case, eat them.
Finally Mr Pierre please see a speech therapist. I thank you.
Oh my here we go again
Mr. PM with our health system and crime fighting skills in a mess, I agree with you sign that agreement quickly to see if you can get rid of the criminals and other you cannot control. The one thing I can assure you is that our criminals are not going to leave the will encourage their friends to come to here. The other are intrigued by the type of guns and other weapons we have, so they will come here to sample them. What measures are in place to avoid unwanted elements in our country. RF, Wayne G and the rest must be very happy for that move by the government. The Vincy boys and the herb crew a new free up war. Are the laws in all Caricom states the same? What a disaster waiting to happen.
This agreement will allow other CARICOM nationals to come and invest in Vieux Fort, but oh wait, it’s a Nationally declared crime hit spot…. oh well it was a thought.
I am not against freedom of movement within Caricom. My question is what happens if a Trinidadian criminal is deported from the USA and he/she chooses to reside in St Lucia from the USA?