Antigua signals willingness to accept US deportees if tourist visas are restored

The proposal is contained in a so-called white paper that the government plans to table in parliament this week as national discomfort with the plan by the US to dump foreign nationals in the country grows.

Authorities released portions of the paper this week and it has already sparked widespread debate, as many citizens fear that “these strangers” will not fit in well with local society.

Detailing its arguments, the administration of Prime Minister Gaston Browne says his cabinet has been engaging Washington “in a spirit of friendship and cooperation,” but the federation with Barbuda must in turn reap some benefits from the US if it is to host non-nationals or third country deportees on its soil.

“If Antigua and Barbuda is to contemplate receiving third-country nationals who are not its nationals, in order to assist the United States with the practical execution of its migration policy, there must also be a clear and commensurate reciprocal benefit to Antigua and Barbuda in the national interest,” the paper noted.

Apart from restoring visa privileges to Antiguans, the government wants clear and unambiguous benefits that will be well defined and penned in writing to avoid future controversies.

“Goodwill alone is not sufficient. Nor can vague expectations of favorable treatment elsewhere be regarded as an adequate foundation for a decision of this kind,” the paper suggested. Visa privileges were also yanked from neighboring Dominica. The head of government has made it clear he thinks that the move had much to do with pressuring Antigua into submission.

The paper further notes that the US must detail clear financial committees for any deportees on local soil, how they would be accommodated, fed, treated medically, arrangements for onward travel, and aspects pertaining to their general welfare. Doubling down on not sharing the burdens alone, the paper argues that any deal with the US must be “lawful, limited, fully funded, carefully controlled, and plainly consistent with Antigua and Barbuda’s sovereignty, capacity, and international obligations.”

Browne has insisted that his federation will accept no more than 14 annually compared to the 120 the US wants to send at various periods of any year, as hints of a stalemate looms.

Several other CARICOM countries are in advanced stages of talks with the US. Nearby St. Kitts has already received a batch of three deportees from the US, but there is no word about their efforts at assimilation.