Caribbean News
IOM ready to support 1,000 families as hurricane season begins
Bridgetown, 03 June 2025 – As the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season begins, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) is reporting significant steps to ensure its preparedness to support emergency response efforts throughout the Caribbean in the event of a disaster. With a history of active work alongside local and regional disaster management agencies, and with global expertise in responding to disasters and displacements, IOM is prepared to play its part if any major event occurs in the Caribbean. The recently inaugurated Caribbean Logistics Hub in Barbados has become a pillar of IOM’s emergency preparedness, with WFP partnering in logistics support. Currently IOM has emergency supplies in stock at The Hub, to improve the safety and dignity of up to 1,000 families. Items include solar lights, water containers, kitchen sets, home repair supplies and tents. This vital capacity has been made possible through the generous support of partners such as the EU’s Directorate-General for Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO), a longstanding contributor to disaster response efforts in the Caribbean. ECHO has also committed support to distribute these supplies in the event of a disaster.
Since 2024, IOM has been co-leading the Emergency Shelter and Non-Food Items Working Group under the coordination of the Caribbean Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA). This Working Group brings together national disaster agencies, humanitarian organizations, and private sector partners to provide support, upon request, to CARICOM Member States, focusing on families whose homes have been damaged or destroyed. 
Coordinator for IOM Caribbean, Patrice Quesada notes that improved coordination with CDEMA is one of the most significant results of relocating IOM’s Caribbean Office to Barbados. “We are pleased that the decision taken in 2022 to establish the IOM Caribbean Coordination Office in Barbados has certainly borne fruit, allowing much closer coordination with CDEMA and other UN agencies, and contributing greatly to the UN’s joint response to Hurricane Beryl in 2024. The lessons we learned allow us to continue improving the way we work, in the interest of saving lives and protecting people on the move due to hurricanes or other disasters in the region.”
IOM has also consistently invested in upskilling public servants and community leaders in Emergency Shelter Coordination and Management, working with local and regional disaster management mechanisms. This year, 20 additional instructors from government and local organizations will be equipped with the latest tools to support emergency shelter operations throughout the region.
Emergencies demand immediate response, and IOM is continuing to build a network of partner organizations across the Caribbean, and to support them to become partners in response efforts. This network will play a vital role in emergency response and provide a crucial two-way communication link between IOM and communities across the region. Any local or regional civil society organization interested in being part of this network, should contact IOM Caribbean (https://www.iom.int/caribbean).
IOM is also growing its collaboration with private companies, recognizing that resilience-building demands action across all sectors. Agreements with Amazon and Lowe’s will provide access to essential emergency equipment to support response efforts, and DHL is on board to train partners in efficient logistics and distribution. IOM also partners globally with Microsoft for data collection, and Airbnb for emergency accommodation, and continues to seek new partners to contribute to expediency, efficiency, and accountability in IOM’s work during times of disaster.
As the 2025 Hurricane Season sets in, IOM continues to espouse national, community, household, and individual preparedness, to prevent loss of life and property. Remember, preparedness saves lives.
For more information, please contact: malleyne@iom.int
By Deandrea Hamilton | Magnetic Media
October 14, 2025 – It’s being called political theatre — but for citizens, constitutional watchdogs, and democracy advocates across the Caribbean, it feels far more serious. Within a single week, two national parliaments — in Trinidad and Tobago and St. Kitts and Nevis — descended into turmoil as opposition members stormed out in protest, accusing their Speakers of bias, overreach, and abuse of parliamentary procedure.
For observers, the walkouts signal a deeper problem: erosion of trust in the very institutions meant to safeguard democracy. When Speakers are viewed as political enforcers instead of neutral referees, parliaments stop functioning as chambers of debate and start performing as stages for power and spectacle — with citizens left wondering who, if anyone, is still accountable.
October 6: St. Kitts Parliament Erupts
The first walkout erupted in Basseterre on October 6, 2025, when Dr. Timothy Harris, former Prime Minister and now Opposition Leader,
led his team out of the St. Kitts and Nevis National Assembly in a protest that stunned the chamber.
The flashpoint came as the Speaker moved to approve more than three years’ worth of unratified parliamentary minutes in one sitting — covering 27 meetings and three national budgets — without individual review or debate.
Dr. Harris called the move “a flagrant breach of the Constitution and parliamentary tradition,” warning that the practice undermines transparency and accountability. “No serious parliament can go years without approving a single set of minutes,” he said after exiting the chamber.
The Speaker defended the decision as administrative housekeeping, but critics were unconvinced, branding the move a “world record disgrace.” The opposition’s walkout triggered renewed calls for the Speaker’s resignation and sparked a wider public discussion about record-keeping, accountability, and respect for parliamentary norms in St. Kitts and Nevis.
October 10: Trinidad Opposition Follows Suit
Four days later, on October 10, 2025, the Opposition United National Congress (UNC) in Trinidad and Tobago staged its own walkout from the House of Representatives in Port of Spain.
The UNC accused the Speaker of partisan bias, claiming she had repeatedly blocked urgent questions, ignored points of order, and allowed government members to breach standing orders without consequence.
“The Speaker has failed in her duty to act impartially,” the Opposition declared in a statement. “Parliament is not the property of any political party or Presiding Officer.”
The dramatic exit was seen as a culmination of months of rising tension and frustration, with opposition MPs arguing that parliamentary rules were being selectively applied to silence dissenting voices.
Political analyst Dr. Marcia Ferdinand described the twin walkouts as “a warning sign that parliamentary democracy in the Caribbean is teetering on the edge of performative politics.”
“When chairs become political shields rather than constitutional referees,” she said, “democracy becomes theatre, not governance.”
A Pattern Emerging
While St. Kitts and Trinidad are very different political environments, both incidents point to the same regional fault line: the perception that Speakers — the guardians of parliamentary order — are no longer impartial.
In Westminster-style systems like those across the Caribbean, the Speaker’s authority depends not on power but on public confidence in fairness. Once that credibility erodes, parliamentary control collapses into confrontation.
Governance experts say the implications are serious: eroded trust between government and opposition, declining public confidence in state institutions, and growing voter cynicism that “rules” are flexible tools of political advantage.
Why It Matters
Parliamentary walkouts are not new in the Caribbean, but what makes these recent events different is their frequency and intensity — and
the regional echo they’ve created. Social media has amplified images of lawmakers storming out, with citizens from Barbados to Belize questioning whether the same erosion of decorum could be happening in their own legislatures.
Analysts warn that if this perception takes hold, it risks diminishing the moral authority of parliamentary democracy itself.
“Once opposition MPs believe the rules are rigged, and once citizens believe Parliament is just performance,” said one Caribbean governance researcher, “you’ve lost the most valuable currency in democracy — trust.”
Restoring Balance
Political reformers across the region are calling for tighter Standing Order enforcement, independent parliamentary service commissions, and training to strengthen Speaker neutrality. Civil society leaders say the public must also play its part by demanding transparency and refusing to normalize partisan manipulation of parliamentary procedure.
Whether these twin walkouts become catalysts for reform — or simply another episode of Caribbean political theatre — will depend on what happens next inside those chambers.
For now, democracy watchers agree on one thing: when opposition leaders feel the only way to be heard is to walk out, the entire democratic house — not just its Speaker — is in danger of collapse.
Angle by Deandrea Hamilton. Built with ChatGPT (AI). Magnetic Media — CAPTURING LIFE.
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