The Cabinet concluded a nine-hour session on Wednesday where the main topic
was the situation involving the West Africans marooned in Antigua and Barbuda
since last December, several of whom are believed to have drowned at sea on
Tuesday.
The Cabinet invited the Commissioner of Police, the Chief of Defense Staff of the
Antigua and Barbuda Defense Force (ABDF), the Director of the Organization of
National Drug Control Policy and Money Laundering (ONDCP), the Chief
Immigration Officer and support staff, and the Superintendent of His Majesty’s
Prison for a briefing on the subject of the unlawful and tragic attempt to smuggle a
group of West Africans out of the state and into another Caribbean country.
It was agreed by all, that since the West Africans entered the country on their own
volition as tourists, were processed by Immigration Authorities upon landing, and
were not seeking to evade law enforcement, then they were not “trafficked
migrants,” as some have wrongfully claimed. In fact, over the three-month period
of the migrants’ stay, attempts were made to integrate these hapless West African
migrants into the Antigua and Barbuda social fabric.
The invitation to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) by the government are
clear signals of the willingness on the administration’s part to seek an amicable
settlement of the issue.
Furthermore, for more than five years, CARICOM had agreed to attempt the
establishment of an air bridge between Africa and the Caribbean. An agreement
with Air Peace was close to completion except for the Air Operating Certificate
(AOC) which was not issued, compelling Air Peace to fly first to Jamaica last year,
rather than to Antigua.
The Cabinet agreed that when the migrants agreed to depart Antigua secretly, and
boarded a vessel after making a payment, allegedly to someone connected to the
vessel, they were engaging in an unlawful activity, transforming themselves from
economic migrants to “trafficked migrants.” Several of the West African migrants
reported that there was expressed hostility towards them by angry people who
signaled that they wished them to leave their country. This hostility, the Cabinet
agreed, was not the custom in Antigua and Barbuda whose immigrant population is
significant.
During the period of campaigning leading up to the January 2023 general elections,
the migrants learned that they had been wrongly accused of being impostor voters,
and other objectionable accusations had been hurled at them.
The officials provided additional information regarding the vessel and its sinking.
The vessel is registered in Guadeloupe; it was captained to Antigua by a captain
that is now assisting the Police in the investigation. Another person captained the
vessel from Antigua until it sank; that person is now held by the Royal Police
Force of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The French Coast Guard out of Guadeloupe have remained in the area of the ocean
where the vessel sank. The likelihood that passengers went under in the capsized
vessel would mean that bodies would float up to the surface after 48 hours. Sixteen
persons are presumed dead since they are missing. Attempts are being made to
identify the cadavers taken to St. Kitts, by way of photos to other members of the
group of migrants. The investigation continues.
