Eastern Caribbean leaders seek united front on United States deportee request

CASTRIES, St. Lucia--Leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have agreed to establish a broad-based, high-level advisory team to guide discussions with the United States on requests for member states to accept a limited number of non-criminal third-country nationals and refugees.

The decision was announced at the conclusion of the 78th Meeting of the OECS Authority on Monday, where regional leaders discussed the request from Washington and its possible implications for small island states.

Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines Dr. Godwin Friday said the matter comes at a time of “profound geopolitical uncertainty” and requires careful, coordinated action across the region.

“We are in a time of profound geopolitical uncertainty, arguably the most consequential our region has faced in a generation. The wider tensions in our hemisphere hold profound implications for our security, our energy supply, the cost of living, our migration flows, and our diplomatic relations,” Dr. Friday told the meeting.

He described the U.S. request as a “delicate and serious matter” that must be handled with care, given its potential impact on national security, public finances, sovereignty, and the use of limited resources.

“Very early on in the year, we were required to consider and navigate the delicate and serious matter of the request from our development partner and friend, the United States, that our member states assist them by accepting persons deported from the USA who were not our own citizens,” Dr. Friday said.

“We are still working through this matter very carefully because it holds serious implications for our economy, the safety of our people, the utilisation of scarce resources and for our sovereignty,” he added.

According to Dr. Friday, OECS member states agreed that the best approach is to work together while allowing individual countries to protect their national interests.

“Accordingly, we agreed to establish a broad-based, high-level advisory team drawn from across our member states, to carry on technical discussions amongst themselves that guided our negotiations with the United States, individually and collectively,” he said.

Dr. Friday also underscored the vulnerability of small island developing states to global and hemispheric developments, noting that challenges experienced differently by larger countries can have a greater and longer-lasting effect on smaller states.

“What may be mere tremors for large nations are experienced as earthquakes by us, small island developing states. We, therefore, suffer the consequences worst and the longest,” he said.

OECS Chairman and Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne said his government has rejected a proposal for Antigua and Barbuda to accept 120 deportees from the United States.

Prime Minister Browne told fellow leaders that Antigua and Barbuda has made clear it will not accept criminal deportees and will not agree to numbers it considers beyond the country’s capacity.

“As I have said to them, as the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, I cannot willingly cooperate with any other power, any country, to destroy our beautiful twin island state. And we have insisted that we will not accept any criminal elements. At the same time, we want to limit the amount of individuals who they send to this country,” Browne said.

He said Antigua and Barbuda remains willing to cooperate with U.S. authorities, but has submitted a counter-proposal.

“We are not being uncooperative here, but this idea that they could send us 120 individuals, we have said to them this is totally unacceptable, and we have sent them a counter-proposal,” Browne said.

“We said that we'll accept 10 annually. No more than 10,” he added.

The OECS position comes after Jamaica confirmed that it is also negotiating an arrangement with the United States to accept a limited number of non-criminal third-country nationals and refugees.

Jamaica’s National Security and Peace Minister Dr. Horace Chang said last Wednesday that Jamaica had signed an agreement “after extensive negotiations” to transition some third-country nationals from the United States to Jamaica.

“The number is 25. It's an understanding, and at no time will the number exceed 25, because we have the right to refuse anyone at any time, and both parties can terminate the entire agreement without any long-term notice,” Dr. Chang said.

Dr. Chang also dismissed reports that Jamaica had agreed to accept 10,000 deportees from the United States, saying the agreement is limited and subject to the country’s right to refuse individuals.

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