The government is actively engaged in discussion to acquire additional assets to
better equip the Antigua and Barbuda Coast Guard to effectively patrol the
country’s coastline and vast territorial waters.
Prime Minister Gaston Browne said discussions are ongoing to acquire a platform
that will greatly enhance the capabilities of the Coast Guard. “We are speaking
with a foreign government for surveillance assets that will cost approximately
US$8 million. Additionally, other discussions are also taking place with other
governments to acquire other resources to add to the fleet of the coast guard,” he
announced.
The prime minister acknowledged that currently the country does not have the
resources necessary to effectively monitor the country’s coastline. This makes
Antigua and Barbuda and other countries in the North-Eastern Caribbean
vulnerable to migrant smuggling which has been recognized as a growing problem
in these parts.
“Based on the increase in migrant smuggling in this area, we now have to step up
and make the sacrifice to acquire more assets to do better surveillance of our
maritime borders,” he stated.
Until these additional assets are in the hands of the coast guard, PM Browne said
he accepts that the country’s coastline is ‘somewhat’ porous. He however
expressed the view that this situation will change when the additional assets arrive.
Meanwhile, Head of the Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force, which oversees the
Coast Guard, Colonel Telbert Benjamin, revealed that there are two ‘interceptors’
now in the hands of the Coast Guard. A third vessel is down for repairs. The two
30-foot vessels were donated by the U.S government.
Col. Benjamin explain that the interceptors are designed for speed and to overtake
vessels that may be traversing the nation’s water with illegal intent. The vessels are
not however, designed for long distances.
Benjamin said, the plan is to acquire additional vessels that may travel further out
at sea. These vessels will be complemented with the addition of a radar system that
will be able to detect vessels traveling through the country’s territorial water.
“Antigua and Barbuda has a huge area as its territorial borders. It’s roughly one
hundred and ten thousand square kilometers (110,000 square kilo). This is huge
when one considers that the land mass is only 440 square kilometers. We are also
in the process of acquiring a second aircraft bolstering our air patrol capabilities,”
he noted.
The Coast Guard has also de-commissioned the Liberta, the Independence era
vessel and the Palmetto, is soon to suffer a similar fate.
