Original: Spanish CHAPTER FIVE Regional Solidarity with the Caribbean for a Comprehensive Response on International Protection and Durable Solutions The Caribbean region faces special challenges in the complex management of mixed migratory movements due to efforts to find a balance between ensuring the integrity of its extensive maritime borders and addressing the protection needs of an increasing number of asylum‐seekers in the region, in a context of limited financial, technical, human and material resources to respond in an adequate manner. Protection at sea is an important feature in the Caribbean, in particular during interception, disembarkation and return procedures. For this purpose, the Caribbean subregional consultation underlined the relevance of the International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which provide the international framework for the protection of persons in distress at sea. Within the framework of a renewed spirit of regional cooperation, the Caribbean wish to overcome these challenges and move forward in strengthening the protection and solutions agenda for asylum‐seekers, refugees and stateless persons, through measures that would ensure phased, coherent and sustainable progress and take into account the specificities of each country. The subregional consultation also supported the global commitment to eradicating statelessness in the next decade. To achieve these goals, the Caribbean has given consideration the launch of a “Regional Solidarity with the Caribbean” programme, whose main objective is to promote a regional dialogue, which may lead to the establishment of a Regional Consultative Mechanism (RCM) for the efficient management of mixed migration. The creation of a RCM would require the agreement of the Caribbean region and the support of the international community through UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), among others. Its establishment, were it to be agreed, must occur gradually through the creation of a structure, which could be located within existing regional platforms such as the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) or the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). The RCM would have four main areas of action: (a) Strengthen cooperation between the countries of origin, transit and destination of asylum‐ seekers and refugees in order to increase national and regional capacities to optimize the management of mixed movements and implement comprehensive responses within a rights‐ based framework, with a focus on protection of persons at sea. Among other means, this could be done through bilateral and multilateral agreements that would include protection safeguards, such as the respect for the non‐refoulement principle and the right to seek and receive asylum. (b) Progressively establish asylum systems through the formulation of public policies and internal regulations and the implementation of procedures for the identification of and differentiated assistance to the different groups in situations of vulnerability, guaranteeing access to refugee status determination procedures and alternatives to detention for asylum‐seekers, and accompanied and unaccompanied children. (c) Formulate programmes that promote comprehensive durable solutions, including measures to promote integration in local communities and the inclusion of refugees in national plans and policies, as well as the promotion of international cooperation and regional solidarity to facilitate the resettlement of refugees, including to South American countries, and voluntary return of migrants, and thus relieve the disproportionate burden on some island countries. (d) Initiate measures to foster coordination in the Caribbean in order to promote appropriate implementation of refugee status determination procedures. 16