Guyana holding talks with US on refugees
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC) — A senior Guyanese official has confirmed that the Caribbean Community (Caricom) country is holding talks with the United States (US) on accepting third-country nationals from the North American country.
“Guyana and the USA have been in productive discussions on a framework of understanding which is consistent with our national priorities and needs and supportive of the USA objectives,” Foreign Secretary Robert Persaud told the Demerara Waves Online News.
Washington is reported to have first made the proposal to friendly countries in the Caribbean and elsewhere in early 2025.
The United States Government, particularly under the second Trump administration, has actively pursued and made deals with various countries, including Belize, Ecuador, Honduras, Uganda, Ghana and Rwanda to accept asylum seekers or deported migrants from the US as “safe third countries” aiming to shift asylum processing away from the US.
Washington is also offering incentives like eased tariffs or immigration restrictions, despite human rights concerns about migrant safety in these locations.
On Monday, both Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda announced that they had reached an agreement with the United States to facilitate third-country refugees.
“I believe this will further deepen our longstanding relationship and signal clearly that Dominica remains a willing and reliable partner of the United States in the region,” said Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit.
For its part, Antigua and Barbuda said it has not entered into any “binding agreement with the United States to accept deportees or refugees”.
“What exists is a non-binding memorandum of understanding proposed by the United States, as part of its global efforts to share responsibility for refugees already present in its territory.
“Antigua and Barbuda was approached by the United States, along with more than one hundred governments worldwide, including several within the Caribbean Community to consider this non-binding arrangement,” the Government said in its statement.
