Antigua will not accept LGBTQ deportees from US, says Gaston Browne
The prime minister cited deportees recently sent to St Kitts and Nevis as he said his cabinet would take no more than 14 a year.
ST JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne has said his country will not accept LGBTQ individuals among any deportees sent by the United States, as pressure from the Trump administration mounts.
“We have enough of those here,” Mr Browne said on his weekend radio show, pointing to neighbouring St Kitts and Nevis, which recently accepted deportees from the US.
“I’m told the three that were sent to St. Kitts, two of them are LGBTQIAs,” he said. “We do not want people who are criminals. We don’t want people who are sick. We do not want anyone who is going to become a charge.”
Limited intake
His remarks come amid seemingly tense negotiations between the Eastern Caribbean nation of just under 100,000 people and the US under the third country initiative, through which the US is seeking to send unwanted immigrants to countries across the Caribbean and Central America.
Mr Browne suggested the country’s limited resources leave it unable to accommodate large numbers of deportees. He said the cabinet is prepared to accept only 14 in a calendar year, up from 10 in earlier negotiating sessions. The US has proposed a much larger number, but Mr Browne has likened any such agreement to political suicide.
Visa restrictions
He has also complained that US pressure has come in the form of restrictions on Antiguans applying for tourist visas from January this year.
“I have no doubt in my mind that the restriction that was issued on Antigua as of the end of last year, effective January of this year, was as a result of this issue. From all indications, that was issued probably to bully us into signing,” he said.
“I’m not going to willingly drink the poison and die. You have to shoot me,” he added. “We are not averse to signing, but it has to be a sensible agreement.”
Several CARICOM member states are in advanced negotiations with the US over accepting deportees from countries whose governments will not take them back, or who are unwilling to return for reasons including persecution.
