Caribbean leaders ease World Cup travel woes

Slowly but surely the preparations for next year's World Cup in the West Indies are falling into place. A significant deal has been struck between ten members of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), to enable tourists to move between the islands without stopping for passport processing.

Inter-island travel is one of the biggest potential pitfalls of the tournament, given that each sovereign state requires its own immigration controls. But from January 15 to May 15 of next year, all nine World Cup host nations plus Dominica will be treated as a single entity, following a meeting in Basseterre, St Kitts.

The deal is part of an unprecedented regional security plan, incorporating the United States advanced passenger information system, which will help improve the passenger flow and overall experience of up to 100,000 cricket fans.

"It is a framework that gives us comfort that we can therefore extend to all persons travelling in these 10 countries during this period of time," Mia Mottley, the Barbados deputy prime minister, said. "[It is] a level of freedom of movement that has not [previously] existed."

Chris Dehring, the tournament director, was also pleased with the measures agreed upon. "As someone who travels the Caribbean often," he said, "the thought of being able to simply get off the plane, go through the airport and not wait in an immigration line for processing is mind-blowing. This is a historic day for the region."

"It speaks volumes about the importance which our leaders place on the Cricket World Cup and the fact that they recognise the need to extend tournament uniformity to areas such as security and immigration. It also demonstrates the catalytic effect which hosting this event has on structures and institutions which had probably needed revamping for some time."

Under the conditions of the deal, visitors will be pre-cleared and information will be shared among a pool of more than 400 police and military personnel. The travelling public will not be required to have their passports stamped at any stage after their initial arrival in the Caribbean. However, all fans would still be advised to carry their passports for identification purposes.