MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, July 9, 2025 - After languishing for over a year in financial limbo despite full compliance with international standards, Jamaica and Barbados have finally been freed from the European Union's anti-money laundering blacklist—a victory that exposes the institutional machinery that treats small Caribbean states as expendable pawns in global finance.
![Bodies of the 21 victims of the Abu Rayya family, died in a fire that ripped through their house in Jabalia camp [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]](/images/2025/07/05/gaza-story_thumbnail.jpg)
