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.
This article was originally published by Antigua News Room. Read the original article here: OECS Forms Advisory Team as U.S. Seeks Regional Help with Third-Nation Deportees.