The highlights this week: Four Caribbean countries launch a free movement regime , Washington lifts sanctions on a former Paraguayan president , and the U.N. demands answers on Nicaragua’s disappeared .

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The highlights this week: Four Caribbean countries launch a free movement regime, Washington lifts sanctions on a former Paraguayan president, and the U.N. demands answers on Nicaragua’s disappeared.

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Caricom Bucks Global Migration Trends

The Caribbean Community, known as Caricom, has long flirted with the idea of labor market integration and freedom of movement similar to that enjoyed by citizens of the European Union and Mercosur.

Last week, four of the bloc’s 15 member states took that step. Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines inaugurated what they call a “full free movement” regime. The move “supports jobs, supports public services, and supports our future,” Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley said in a speech last Tuesday.

Since 2006, several Caricom states have allowed residency for citizens of the bloc who obtain skills certificates. But that system “did not always run smoothly, with delays in processing,” said Natalie Dietrich Jones, a migration expert at the University of the West Indies. The new program does not require special permits, though countries can turn people away if they are deemed a security threat or an excess strain on public services.

This is the second free movement regime to t