OECS Forms Advisory Team as U.S. Seeks Regional Help with Third-Nation Deportees
Leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have agreed to establish a high-level advisory team to help guide negotiations with the United States over a request for member states to accept deportees who are not citizens of their countries.
The decision was announced by former OECS Chairman and Prime Minister of Godwin Friday during the opening of the 78th Meeting of the OECS Authority at the Royalton Resort in Deep Bay, where he formally handed over the chairmanship to Gaston Browne.
Friday said the request from the United States has emerged amid what he described as a period of significant global uncertainty and poses important challenges for the region.
“We are in a time of profound geopolitical uncertainty, arguably the most consequential our region has faced in a generation. The wider tensions in our hemisphere hold profound implications for our security, our energy supply, the cost of living, our migration flows and our diplomatic relations,” he said.
According to Friday, OECS governments have been grappling with a U.S. proposal that Caribbean countries assist by accepting deportees from the United States who are not nationals of the receiving states.
“Very early on in the year, we were required to consider and navigate the delicate and serious matter of the request from our development partner and friend, the United States, that our member states, among other countries, assist them by accepting persons deported from the USA who were not our own citizens,” he said.
He noted that the issue remains under review because of the potential consequences for public safety, national resources, economic stability and sovereignty across the sub-region.
“We are still working through this matter very carefully because it holds serious implications for our economy, the safety of our people, the utilization of scarce resources and for our sovereignty,” Friday said.
To strengthen the OECS response, leaders agreed to establish an advisory body comprising representatives from member states to coordinate technical discussions and support negotiations with Washington.
“Accordingly, we agreed to establish a broad-based, high-level advisory team drawn from across our member states to carry on technical discussions amongst themselves that guided our negotiations with the United States, individually and collectively,” he said.
Friday also underscored the vulnerability of small island states to external developments, arguing that international events often have a disproportionate impact on Caribbean nations.
“What may be mere tremors for large nations are experienced as earthquakes by us, small island developing states. We therefore suffer the consequences worst and the longest,” he said.
The issue of third-country deportees has become a growing concern for Caribbean governments, which are balancing humanitarian considerations and diplomatic relations with the United States against concerns about security, sovereignty and the capacity of small states to absorb additional populations.
Advertise with the mоѕt vіѕіtеd nеwѕ ѕіtе іn Antigua!
We offer fully customizable and flexible digital marketing packages.
Contact us at [email protected]
What is there to discuss..just say no.. argument over.
The disappointing part here is that many of these same members jump all over the leader of T&T and try to gaslight her as a fool for backing trump in the Maduro overthrow, and now here we are today..who look more the wiser now?
I’m not a Donald guy, but the foolish rhetoric about the Carribean being a zone of peace, in efforts to say that Trump had no right intervening in Venezuela politics has seriously back fired..These leaders should have back the US back then..it would have been a show of solidarity with the US on that front.
There are certain hills that you should be willing to die on, and backing Maduro wasn’t one of them..the man was literally killing his own oppositions..that’s not someone you side with, not because you were getting cheap gas from him.
Those decisions will continue to haunt the OECS for the duration of Trump’s presidency..call him what you want, but he got the Maduro situation correct. I call a spade a spade.
What is there to discuss..just say no.. argument over.
The disappointing part here is that many of these same members jump all over the leader of T&T and try to gaslight her as a fool for backing trump in the Maduro overthrow, and now here we are today..who look more the wiser now?
I’m not a Donald guy, but the foolish rhetoric about the Carribean being a zone of peace, in efforts to say that Trump had no right intervening in Venezuela politics has seriously back fired..These leaders should have back the US back then..it would have been a show of solidarity with the US on that front.
There are certain hills that you should be willing to die on, and backing Maduro wasn’t one of them..the man was literally killing his own oppositions..that’s not someone you side with, not because you were getting cheap gas from him.
Those decisions will continue to haunt the OECS for the duration of Trump’s presidency..call him what you want, but he got the Maduro situation correct. I call a spade a spade.
I just saw a video with a US Official saying these DEPORTEES are dangerous and he is not apologizing for saying so, so they gave to send them to other countries. Trump considers us SHITHOLE COUNTRIES that’s why they are attempting to send them in our region. The Jackasses down here will eventually accept them. Hope someone related to them may not pay for their stupidity
My question is why can’t these people be sent back to their country of birth or nationality??
@Be diligent in this matter. It is no so easy to send them back “Where they come from”. Many of them destroy their official documents once they arrive in the US or Europe. Many of them came as children and never had official documents. In the case of terrorists such as former members of ISIS several countries refused to take them. Australia and the UK refused to accept members of ISIS who were being deported. The Kurds had them in detention centres for nearly 10 years with no where to send them.
The EU are currently trying to sign a deal with the Taliban to accept their deportees. The UK tried paying Rwanda to accept third country migrants.
Comments are closed.