Arrangements may be made to ensure that the Africans have legal status in Antigua

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CABINET NOTES:

The treatment to be meted out to the visitors from West Africa who arrived on charters from West Africa and those who remain in Antigua.

The Cabinet examined the circumstances under which the Antigua Airways flights were conceived and originated.

The passengers were to be well-off citizens of Nigeria and neighbouring countries who wished to travel to the Caribbean as tourists.

 (A well-established carrier known as Air Peace had made a request to commence a regular service between Nigeria and Antigua; the carrier chose to fly to Jamaica instead, since the ECCAA licence was taking a long time.) T

he Cabinet was informed that the visitors remaining in Antigua can be located in several small hotels and guest houses across the island.

An offer to return them to their country is to be made, though many are likely to choose to stay, it was reported. Some arrangement may likely be made to ensure that their status is legal.

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26 COMMENTS

  2. Well if they wanna stay let them.
    Africa is peaceful have been there before I was well treated nicely. My husband an I were most please by how friendly they are.

    • You say Africa is peaceful . The Africans are saying there is war going on that’s why they got out . Which is it ??

  5. Hopefully the people of Antigua could help them with their expenses as well. I’m sure they would need money to pay for various things such as food and accommodation. Also, as men they would need company as well. Some may need to continue with their religious traditions. Some of them may have health conditions as would need treatment. Mass migration usually requires adjustments to be made to the host society.

    • @Bilbo from All Saints. I have to assume, from your comments, that you are one of the “mass migrants”. Antigua is a very small island consisting of 108 square miles. We are already overloaded with immigrants from the other islands. The infrastructure is already stretched beyond capacity, and you are suggesting that the already struggling Antigua people should take on more financial burden to feed, accommodate, supply with women, cover health bills and cater to religious beliefs of people who have a huge country (356,376 square miles) to go back to! My advice would be to demonstrate in front of PM’s house until charters are arranged and prepaid by same people who conned you into boarding an aircraft that had to have screamed dodgy from the onset!

  6. So first they would be repatriated, now they will be given “legal” status, whatever that means? What the hell is going on here? A bunch of dumb-ass, incompetent, clueless morons in our cabinet. Again. This whole “Antigua Airways will do them in. But Alas! They voted them back into office. We have to take what we get.

  8. So we are saying the end justifies the means? We all, every one of us, know that bringing those people here was WRONG. We all know that the Government of Antigua and Barbuda was dishonest in its dealings in this matter.

    Even today we are seeing that the dishonesty is being legitimized by pronouncements made by Melford Nicholas about future flights.
    Observer is also fully bought in by putting a picture in its paper of soldiers meaning to be Cameroonian but could be taken of soldiers anywhere.

    Yet we are talking about giving legal status to these people, most of whom knew what they were engaging in was not legal?

    We are barely surviving still we are putting on top of put. Some of us hearts bleeding like a stuck pig because we have so much sympathy for the black Africans but not for the black pensioners who walk everyday and can’t get their pension money that they work for?

    ARE WE THE MOST FOOLY PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET?

    • “ARE WE THE MOST FOOLY PEOPLE ON THIS PLANET?”

      Politically, yes we are – without a shadow of a doubt boss!

  9. Choose to stay? They have that option? People from other countries can come to Antigua on a visitor’s visa and just choose to stay? Just so? We are deporting Haitians and Indians but these people can just “choose to stay”? Wha ya tall tall! Why doesn’t the government just say that they fuc**d up this whole Antigua Airways thing and now cannot afford to charter a plane to return them to Africa.

  11. These concerns are not unfounded. The nation has an unfortunate reputation among the Eastern Caribbean as being host to an active scandal mill, including, but not limited to, facilitating the transshipment of guns to South Africa’s apartheid regime; sheltering Allen Stanford, the disgraced American financial fraudster; the DC Sniper fiasco, where the country’s compromised immigration enforcement system caused John Lee Malvo, to travel to the US, killing 10 persons and critically wounding 3 in Washington DC; the recent abduction, and reappearance of Mehul Choksi, a fugitive jeweler from India who attained citizenship in Antigua via the CIP program; the ongoing Odebrecht scandal, and the recent FTX collapse, just to name a few.”
    The above is an article from December 31st, 2022 dominicanewsonline. Just in case we think the region and the world are not paying attention.

    • And with all the above known FACTS that you’ve highlighted in the above @Watching, we the Antiguan electorate still returned the ABLP to governance for another 4-5 years.

      WHY DO ANTIGUANS TURN A BLIND EYE AND PUT UP WITH THIS NEGLIGENT BEHAVIOUR TIME AFTER TIME, AND ELECTION AFTER ELECTION?

      If there are any psychologists who understands these traits and weaknesses in Antiguans, please decipher and let the rest of us know …

    • Antigua is not apart of America. Always using the USA as some sort of yardsick. Allen Stanford never breaks any laws. The USA used him as a scapegoat to keep us dependant on them for life.

  12. Seriously, no bells rang when we saw plane loads of men, one or two women, and ABSOLUTELY NO CHILDREN come off these flights?

  14. This is all a sinister plan to displace born antigans. Once this accomplished, they believe they will have a block of votes for years to come, like the other non-nationals.
    Many antigans swallowed the big lie hood line and sinker about wealthy African

    • I’m with you on that one @Cool Ruler.

      The ABLP government are determined to replace the AUTOCHTHONOUS Antiguans, so that Gaston Browne can live his dream of becoming a dictator for the rest of his political days.

      ESPECIALLY WATCH OUT, INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF ALL SAINTS AND BARBUDA … 🇦🇬

  15. Could it all have been a plot from the inception to use the Africans who arrived here to vote? After questions were raised by the citizens about this strange Antigua Airways flight from Nigeria, the government declared they were well off tourists who came here just to visit. Then the government flip flopped and declared that it was the wrong set of people who came here and that the flight was duplicated by some other airline and that the Africans will be repatriated and sent back to their country if origin. Then the government again flip flopped and declared that these people will be allowed to stay and granted legal status here. The next thing you might hear is that these people will be granted some kind of a special citizenship status through political asylum or refugee application making them eligible to vote. One thousand voters can sway considerably any general election if spread across key constituencies strategically. People we must all pay keen attention to this situation brewing. This government takes the people of this country for fools!!!!

  17. Thank you for stepping up and reaching out to assist these people, it’s absolutely the correct thing to do! Acting on it now it’s the best, responsible and most gracious thing our Government can do, no matter how it first came about, lessons have now been learned and we need to move forward from here and not leave these folks in peril and stranded! We have a shortage of skilled labourers in Antigua so those that can put their hands to work on the housing project and any other government run projects, it would a blessing for them and also give them hope for a better tomorrow!! Each Endeavouring all Achieving!! We are a beautiful country and people, let’s rise above the negativity and hold out a kind and gracious hand to our Brothers and Sisters who have stepped on our shores with the hope of a better tomorrow…

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