Swipe card coming to ease travel between OECS countries

Member states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are planning to take their integration a step further with the introduction of a swipe card that will ensure hassle-free travel between countries.

Already there is no need to obtain a skills certificate to move and live in any OECS member state, and a driver’s license allows citizens to drive in any country in that sub-region.

Now Director General of the OECS Commission Dr. Didacus Jules says a biometric swipe card is coming.

“We have already designed a single biometric ID card that contains all the information that is required so that, in the near future, with the issuance of these cards, people from the OECS will not even have to fill out immigration cards to move – you just swipe and you move,” he said ahead of OECS Day tomorrow.

Dr. Jules added that the integration movement was progressing “admirably” and while there is still some way to go, “we’ve come a long way as well”.

“I think we need to take a balanced perspective and, the truth is, within the overall project of Caribbean regional unity, the OECS is far ahead,” he said.

The OECS is a nine-member grouping comprised of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, with Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands being associate members.