The Antigua and Barbuda government is monitoring a High Court case in Trinidad and Tobago where a judge has temporarily blocked the Immigration Department from deporting five Cameroonians who arrived last November after fleeing their homeland, fearing they would be killed by military forces.
Last week Tuesday, Justice Carol Gobin granted the application to the lawyers representing the Africans less than four hours before they were to be placed on a flight to Panama and then back to Cameroon.
Governor General Sir Rodney Williams, delivering the traditional Throne speech at the opening of the new Parliament following the January 18 general election, said the Gaston Browne administration, which is dealing with a similar situation where hundreds of people from Cameron are stranded, is aware of the High Court ruling in Port of Spain.
“My government notes with interest, the decision of the High Court in Trinidad and Tobago less than a week ago to prevent the Trinidad and Tobago government from deporting the West Africans back to their homeland.
“My government further notes that the UNHCR, (UN Refugee Agency) played a significant role in stopping the deportations. My government is required to take the High Court decision into consideration and to the role of the UNHCR prior to making its final decision,” Sir Rodney said.
Earlier this month, following the weekly Cabinet meeting, Information Minister Melford Nicholas told reporters the government had decided while West Africans will not be afforded Antiguan and Barbudan citizenship, those who choose to remain could be offered residency and work permits.
The government had previously announced that the hundreds of Africans who arrived in the country on charter flights in recent months would be allowed to remain.
“Antiguan passport? No…I don’t think that that is on the cards, but certainly the whole idea of residency and work permits, that is part of the legal framework that we are considering,” Nicholas told the media.
Nicholas said the Immigration Department had been tasked with tracking down and investigating just how many of the Africans would like to be repatriated – as the government has also offered – or remain in the country. But, according to Nicholas, Cabinet has yet to receive an update.
He did however say for those who wish to stay, government will be looking at various options to ensure they do so legally while contributing to the country’s economic growth.
Government had earlier this month said 637 of the more than 900 people who touched down between November and January remained in Antigua. Many of them are Cameroonians fleeing a bloody conflict back home.
The main opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) called for a Commission of Inquiry to determine if the authorities are engaged in human trafficking after supporters staged protest action against the government’s decision to legalize the status of hundreds of African migrants.
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I get the family, gene, brother, sister #motherland, #homeland, reparations, back_2_africa, pan African, Black_Power, Ras Tafar I, Ethiopian World Federation to Marcus Garvey to Atilli Rogers to Shashane from the 1900 to Present.
I haven’t lived all these years physically, but for those which I have lived, and gain learning to knowledge to wisdom, the AFRICAN_ REFUGEE now budding in the Caribbean is not about fear, of being murdered, killed because of Civil Wars, since, from the days of the Spanish Inquisition to the Merchant Marine British Conglomerates to the Dutch East India Companies to the Jewish take over of Middle East, millions have died(murdered/killed) because of greed, wars etc.
Today(2023) the same African Continent which the present Refugees are fearful of, have and I repeat, have several of the fastest growing Nations in the World today. Therefore, if you are being fearful of your Nation, in this case Cameroon, why not go to Rwanda, Ghana, Ethiopia, South Africa etc., since, they have more opportunities than Us, in this region.
These present set of #African_Refugees sees regions like the Caribbean, as easy pickings, just like those of the Original Triangular Trade Routes. Our politicians are fully aware of this, and as the saying goes, an astute politician like a Gaston Browne will never let a #GOOD_CRISIS go to waste!
Ras Smood aka Jumbee_Picknee
De ‘ole Dutty Peg Foot Bastard
Vere C. Edwards
How many of the West Africans are Nigerians? The Cameroonians are the only ones for which refugee status should be considered.
The Alp elected officials knew what they were doing when they became involved with the Antigua Airways SCAM — They didn’t care because the African refugees aren’t going to become their neighbors.
The citizens of Antigua needs answers to three very important questions on this whole situation:
1) How was this allowed to happen in the first place, when any well travelled Antiguan knows that they’ll be asked where they will be staying? How long they’ll be staying for? And the nature and reason for their travel destination?
2) There was a lot of hullabaloo, brouhaha (especially from the ABS media outlets)and fanfare when the Africans first arrived here in Antigua – and why the silence now from the major players in this awful collaboration?
3) If arrangements were made so EASY for the arrivals of the – now stranded – Africans by the ABLP government, why the DIFFICULTIES in returning them?
Three pertinent questions that should have been answered when our concerns were first made.
We need answers from both the government and also the immigration department forthwith; because this situation first started as a bad SMELL, and it now STINKS, and it is now FERMENTING to the stage that concerned Antiguans are now worried about possible Homeland security and crime in the not too distant future.
WE NEED ANSWERS, AND WE NEED THEM NOW …
The court ruling in TNT was for 6 Cameroonians not the 637 that’s in Antigua. They need to deport all of them. The UNHCR would be seriously inept to expect a small island like Antigua coming out of a pandemic with a struggling economy, to be burdened with migrants. No other island wants this liability, since a majority might have no skills that’s transferable. Therefore they are a burden to the economy. Prepare for more scamming, illegal encampment and squatting on your properties. My country is in crisis! 😭
The scramble for Africa is on…
The West needs all of Africa’s resources for their NWO electric self driving cars, their transhumanism agenda, and technically advancements. The way they’re going to get it is to destabilize that continent and have Africans running to places that cannot sustain themselves.
True,so very true,that is exactly what is happening
How many of these individuals have passports issued by the countries from which they departed?
If and when they decide to stay and are granted residency and work permits. How will the government proceed? Antigua and Barbuda passports on the cards or do they have them already! Are they going to categorize these individuals “Persona non Grata?”
Labournearga: speak up.
I don’t see what is happening in T&t been the same as here in Antigua . First they were suppose to be visitors and also investors. Now we are hearing about human trafficking and refugees. There needs to be some truth about what really was the motive in the first place and what went wrong. Something is not adding up here . There are more questions than answers. We need to get to the bottom of this mess.
Gaston cannot be that incompetent that he thought refugees were rich Africans. Standard procedure is that they must declare their plans in Antigua and where they are staying. Let’s not get distracted here, this is an intensional act for some kind of personal gain on the backs of Antiguans. This is not right and we should not put up with it.
That’s 637 more ABLP voters. Biden doing the same in the US by his Open borders policy. Politians will be the end of the world all they seek is power & greed
@my 2 sense.
I totally agree.
And the next thing America has opportunity but none in ANU
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