ICC Senior Official Praises CARICOM Measures for 2007 Cricket World Cup

ICC Cricket World Cup West Indies 2007 Inc. Managing Director & CEO, Chris Dehring, applauded the security and immigration initiatives agreed to by the Prime Ministers of CARICOM for next year´s ICC Cricket World Cup.

This includes a decision to officially designate the nine Host Venues plus Dominica as “one domestic space” from January to May 2007, eliminating the need for persons to be processed through immigrations and customs during the period.

CARICOM officials revealed their agreement to allow “the free movement of people” among the ten countries for the first five months of next year.

The traveling public will not be required to have their passports “stamped” to clear Customs and Immigration once you are coming from any of the ten countries in the single domestic space.

For international visitors, a similar situation would apply, after being processed in the country in which they first arrive in the region. However, all fans would still be advised to carry their passports for identification purposes.

There will also be a single CARICOM visa which non-Caribbean fans can use for all ten countries instead of the usual practice of acquiring individual visas for each of these Caribbean countries as necessary.

In addition to these two initiatives aimed at dealing with the regional and international fans who will be traveling during the event, CARICOM announced a $13 million regional security plan and the formation of a 400-strong regional security force to beef up national security resources of the nine host venues.

It was also announced that the Caribbean will receive assistance from the American, British and French governments in the deployment of their regional plan as well as from Interpol who will establish a regional presence from January.