Antigua and Barbuda will require funding and support arrangements to be in place before receiving any third-country nationals transferred from the United States, Prime Minister Gaston Browne said Saturday.
Speaking on the Browne and Browne Show, Browne said negotiations were nearing completion, but compensation and arrangements with an international organisation would be addressed separately.
“The issue of compensation, they asked us to negotiate a separate agreement with them rather than put it in the TCN itself,” he said.
Browne said the government wanted to avoid accepting people before securing the resources needed to support them.
“My understanding is that some countries may have accepted individuals before making arrangements … and may not have gotten the support funding,” he said. “We want to make sure that we don’t make that mistake.”
Operating procedures read during the programme state that no first transfer would occur until the necessary arrangement with an agreed international organisation had been concluded and become operational.
Antigua and Barbuda would also have to be satisfied that the required financial and operational arrangements were in place.
Under the text, the United States would be expected to fund a competent international organisation, mutually acceptable to both governments, to provide and coordinate services for transferred individuals.
The organisation’s participation would depend on its own mandate, policies and risk assessment, along with a separate arrangement with Antigua and Barbuda.
If that assistance became unavailable, was discontinued or reduced, or was considered inadequate by Antigua and Barbuda, additional transfers would not proceed unless satisfactory alternative arrangements were established.
The procedures also provide for U.S. support and funding for voluntary return or lawful onward movement, subject to Antigua and Barbuda’s laws and applicable international obligations.
A transferred person’s withdrawal from an assisted voluntary return programme would not, by itself, end the financial and operational arrangements.
Antigua and Barbuda could immediately suspend consideration or reception of further transfers over inadequate funding, excessive financial or administrative burdens, or pressure on housing, health and social services.
The accumulation of people whose voluntary return or onward movement had not occurred within a reasonable period would also provide grounds for suspension.
Browne said those safeguards were central to the government’s approach.
“I’m happy with the agreement, you know, considering that it could have been significantly more onerous,” he said. “I think we have a number of safeguards there.”
The procedures would limit transfers to seven people during each successive three-month period, with each person requiring Antigua and Barbuda’s prior written approval. The country would have no obligation to accept any minimum number.
Browne said the remaining issues did not appear to be deal-breakers and that the completed agreement would be filed with Parliament once signed.
This article was originally published by Antigua News Room. Read the original article here: US migrant transfers to Antigua and Barbuda must await funding arrangements, Browne says.