Leaders express growing concern about US non-national deportees

Caribbean governments planning to allow the United States to send hundreds of non-national deportees to the region say the process must not disrupt normal life and that they expect deportees to use their new bases as a stepping stone toward eventually returning home.

The views of regional leaders were contained in a special statement issued Thursday at the conclusion of their three-day summit in St. Lucia last week.

The leaders said the so-called third-country nationals program (TCNs) was of sufficient concern to several member states that it was placed on the agenda and discussed at length. They pleaded with regional citizens to understand that the arrangement is not linked to permanent settlement, but rather is intended to allow deportees to eventually return to their home countries.

“They emphasized the need citizens of the region to understand the distinction. They further agreed that every effort should be made to engage CARICOM citizens on these issues. They also affirmed their commitment to the principles of safe, orderly and regular migration, and to the dignity of migrants,” the statement noted.

The leaders said they remain adamant that countries should not accept any deportees with criminal backgrounds.

Meanwhile, new regional chairman and St. Lucian Prime Minister Phillip Pierre said member states have agreed to share information on the progress of negotiations with the United States and to help each other understand what exactly is taking place with the highly controversial program.

“Yes, we did discuss it. 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 added. “Right now, it’s a fact the United States has asked most islands to accept third-country nationals,” he told reporters.

With the United States placing visa restrictions on some Eastern Caribbean states, including Dominica and Antigua, some leaders have argued that they are participating in the program as a “pragmatic” step to regain full visa privileges that were withdrawn in January.

Antiguan Prime Minister Gaston Browne, for example, said last week that he is convinced the U.S. actions regarding visas were specifically and deliberately designed to pressure his federation with Barbuda into accepting deportees, up to 120 per year. His cabinet has said it will only definitively accept no more than 14 as the two sides engage in a dispute over numbers.

Jamaica, meanwhile, has confirmed that it will accept 25 deportees every two weeks for a so far unspecified period, triggering unease among civil society groups and opposition parties.