Barbados hints at signing refugee agreement with United States
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC) — The Barbados Government has hinted at the possibility of following several other Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries in signing an agreement with the United States (US) to facilitate third-country refugees so as to mitigate scenarios where Washington cannot return these individuals to their state of birth or origin.
Foreign Affairs Minister Kerrie Symmonds says while Bridgetown has not yet been approached by Washington, “I would like to think that we would not be left out.”
So far, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St Lucia, and Saint Kitts and Nevis have all indicated that they have signed the accord with the North American country, while Guyana has disclosed that negotiations are still ongoing.
Symmonds told the online publication, Barbados TODAY, that the United States is going around the Caribbean, and “they have not reached out to us yet, so we will just wait and see. It is not something we are looking forward to”. However, he said Barbados will “cross that bridge” when the time comes.
Symmonds declined to comment on what conditions Barbados might attach to any deal with the US, reiterating that the country had not yet heard from the Trump administration.
He said that Antigua and Barbuda had stipulated that it would not accept asylum-seekers with criminal records, while Dominica has said there were “careful deliberations of the need to avoid receiving violent individuals or individuals who will compromise the security of Dominica”.
In December last year, the Trump administration expanded travel restrictions to 20 more countries, including Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda, which went into effect on January 1 this year.
Last week, the US State Department said Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica were the only two Caricom countries whose citizens will now have to post a bond of up to US$15,000 when applying for a visa to enter the North American country.
The US State Department said that the measure comes into effect from January 21 this year, and the only other Caribbean country named is Cuba. The majority of the countries whose citizens would need to post the bond are from Africa.
