Dominica, Guyana and St Lucia receive first non-nationals deported by the US
Five Colombians sent to Dominica have already gone home, Roosevelt Skerrit said, while St Lucia rejected four of the ten people the US proposed.
ROSEAU, Dominica. The United States is stepping up deportations of non-nationals to Caribbean countries, with Dominica reporting that the first five Colombians to arrive have all chosen to leave the island and return home to South America.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit said the five arrived in the Eastern Caribbean country recently but accepted the option of returning home. He said the authorities had earlier rejected a list of five other Colombian names proposed by the US because the information supplied about their backgrounds was insufficient.
The five who have since left were proposed in a second batch, for which the background information was more adequate, so they were accepted and allowed to land, he said.
"It was very fast," Skerrit said. "There were five Colombians who came in, and in a quick time they left Dominica and they went to Colombia. None of the five people had any criminal records."
Quarterly limit
Skerrit said Dominica had agreed to accept between five and seven people each quarter, "but not more than that". He said the US government provided funds for those individuals, who were placed in a hotel, fed and looked after.
"We have a higher philosophical view on humanity and the right for everybody to survive and to be regarded," he said.
His announcement followed a week of related activity in the 15-nation Caribbean bloc, with Guyana and St Lucia both confirming their first arrivals.
St Lucia retains discretion
St Lucia's Foreign Minister Alva Baptiste told reporters the island had rejected four of the ten people the US had proposed, but gave no further details. He did not reveal the identities of the six now on the island, saying only that two want to leave and four have asked to remain for now.
"They are certainly not criminals as has been portrayed in some circles," Baptiste said. "Under the agreement with the US, Saint Lucia retains full discretion to review and reject any individual proposed for relocation."
He added that the government did not minimise the country's social and economic challenges, but that its responsibility to the people of Saint Lucia and to human dignity "are not competing principles. We can and must do both."
