Caricom leaders voice growing concern over US plan to send non-national deportees
A summit statement said the arrangement is not about permanent settlement, and leaders insisted no deportees with criminal backgrounds should be accepted.
CASTRIES, St Lucia. Caribbean governments planning to allow the United States to send non-national deportees to the region say the process must not disrupt normal life, and that deportees should use the region only as a stepping stone to returning home.
The leaders set out their views in a special statement issued on Thursday at the end of their three-day summit in St Lucia.
They said the so-called third-country nationals programme was of sufficient concern to several member states that it was placed on the agenda and discussed at length.
Leaders urged regional citizens to understand that the arrangement is not linked to permanent settlement. “They emphasised the need for citizens of the region to understand the distinction. They further agreed that every effort should be made to engage Caricom citizens on these issues,” the statement said.
The leaders said they remained adamant that countries should not accept any deportees with criminal backgrounds.
‘Right now, we are not clear’
The new Caricom chairman, St Lucia’s Prime Minister Philip Pierre, said member states had agreed to share information on their negotiations with the US.
“It’s an issue that is of concern to all of us. We discussed it, and we took a position that we would share some more information among ourselves about what, really, is each island doing. Right now, we are not clear,” he told reporters. “Right now, it’s a fact the United States has asked most islands to accept third-country nationals.”
Visas and numbers
With the US having placed visa restrictions on some Eastern Caribbean states, including Dominica and Antigua, some leaders have described taking part as a “pragmatic” step towards regaining the visa privileges withdrawn in January.
Antigua’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne said last week he was convinced the US visa measures were deliberately designed to pressure his country into accepting up to 120 deportees a year. His Cabinet has said it will accept no more than 14.
Jamaica has confirmed it will accept 25 deportees every two weeks for an as yet unspecified period, prompting unease among civil society groups and opposition parties.
