ST JOHN’S, Antigua (CMC) — The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) has agreed to establish a broad-based advisory team to guide negotiations with the United States (US) to accept a limited number of non-criminal third-country nationals and refugees.

St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, Dr Godwin Friday, said the request from Washington comes at a time of “profound geopolitical” uncertainty.

“We are in a time of profound geopolitical uncertainty, arguably the most consequential our region has faced in a generation. The wider tensions in our hemisphere hold profound implications for our security, our energy supply, the cost of living, our migration flows, and our diplomatic relations,” Friday told the 78th summit of the OECS which ended on Monday.

Friday said the matter requires thoughtful deliberation and unity as it is “a delicate and serious matter”.

“Very early on in the year, we were required to consider and navigate the delicate and serious matter of the request from our development partner and friend, the United States, that our member states assist them by accepting persons deported from the USA who were not our own citizens.

“We are still working through this matter very carefully because it holds serious implications for our economy, the safety of our people, the utilisation of scarce resources and for our sovereignty,” Friday said, adding that the OECS countries agreed to work closely together to fashion the best outcome possible.

“Accordingly, we agreed to establish a broad-based, high-level advisory team drawn from across our member states, to carry on technical discussions amongst themselves that guided our negotiations with the United States, individually and collectively.”

Friday said that small states are more sensitive to external shocks than most, because of their size.

“What may be mere tremors for large nations are experienced as earthquakes by us, small island developing states. We, therefore, suffer the consequences worst and the longest,” he added.

Meanwhile, the OECS Chairman and Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, has said that his Government will not agree to a third-party agreement with the United States for 120 deportees to be sent to the island.

He told his colleagues that the ongoing discussions and arrangements with Washington are akin to “the deployment of economic coercion as an instrument of foreign policy”.

He said he has made it clear to Washington that there is no room in the discussions for criminals.

“As I have said to them, as the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, I cannot willingly cooperate with any other power, any country, to destroy our beautiful twin island state. And we have insisted that we will not accept any criminal elements. At the same time, we want to limit the amount of individuals who they send to this country.”

Browne said Antigua and Barbuda will continue to cooperate with the US authorities on the issue, adding, “We are not being uncooperative here, but this idea that they could send us 120 individuals, we have said to them this is totally unacceptable, and we have sent them a counter-proposal.”

“We said that we’ll accept 10 annually. No more than 10,” Browne said.

The position by the OECS countries comes as Jamaica, last Wednesday, confirmed that it is in negotiations with the United States to accept no more than 25 non-criminal third-country nationals and refugees.

National Security and Peace Minister, Dr Horace Chang, said that the Government had signed “after extensive negotiations…an agreement to transition to Jamaica, some third country nationals from the United States”.

“The number is 25. It’s an understanding, and at no time will the number exceed 25, because we have the right to refuse anyone at any time, and both parties can terminate the entire agreement without any long-term notice,” Chang said.

Chang dismissed media reports that the Government had only made known of the agreement after it had been leaked that the country had agreed to accept 10,000 deportees from the North American country.