Caribbean countries are lobbying for an extensive international debt relief and investment programme, as politicians become increasingly anxious over the social impact of the region’s economic crisis.

Most of the dozen anglophone countries in the tropical archipelago are struggling with large government debts and lacklustre economies after the financial crisis hurt tourism. Since 2010, St Kitts and Nevis, Grenada, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda and Jamaica – twice – have had to restructure their debts and enter International Monetary Fund programmes. Others, including Barbados, are also imposing austerity.

This is causing social hardship, exacerbating high crime rates and even endangering the health of their democracies, some senior politicians fear.