The Citizenship by Investment Programme (CIP) – through which foreign nationals can become legal citizens of Antigua and Barbuda – came under scrutiny only recently from the US government, for a “lack of transparency.”
The Cabinet plans to divert some CIP funds towards the development of sports clubs in a bid to reduce youth violence, particularly among young men.
With the number of crimes committed by young people being of focus for the Ministers, the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst says the Sport Minster was tasked with coming up with a top line figure to discourage such activity.
Speaking at the post-Cabinet meeting, Hurst says the intent is to reduce antisocial behaviour and increase community connectivity with young people.
“Especially young males, we have found, have a tendency to go off and to become a little anti-social. So what the cabinet is attempting to do is to create the systems that will allow those young men and young women to channel their energies into positive methods of growing into adulthood. And sports has traditionally been a very important methodology in Antigua and Barbuda for creating better citizens.”
While the details remain sparse at this stage as to what Cabinet hopes to implement with the CIP funds, Hurst says the areas targeted for this initiative would be the most densely populated areas.
“Those areas that are densely populated are some of the neighborhoods that are targeted first. So you can imagine that places like Green Bay, Grace Farm, Point and Villa, Fort Road, Clare Hall, Johnson’s Village, Sutherlands and so on, where there is a concentration of people that every effort would be made to ensure that as many opportunities for positive growth and positive participation can take place.”
Last year, the government sought a different method to addressing youth violence—a national youth service corps made up of youth who run afoul of the law. Hurst says conversations with the National Defence Force have dissuaded any further talk on the matter.
“There is this very fine divide between having the cadet corps represent a training ground for all those who are interested and having it as a place where those who have committed minor crimes could in fact be compelled to join and we don’t want to sully the image of the cadet corps.”
Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff Lionel Hurst.