Leader of the Opposition Jamale Pringle is again raising concern about a number of Africans who arrived in Antigua on board a charter flight from Africa over two years ago.
Pringle, while supporting the ratification of a resolution to establish an Air Services Agreement between the Government of Antigua and Barbuda and the Government of Rwanda, said the government has not given any update on the whereabouts of the West Africans.
The Opposition MP said that while the government is seeking to establish a relationship with the African continent, we cannot have another Antigua Airways debacle.
Pringle said following the drownings of several West Africans while attempting to leave Antigua, the nation is still awaiting official updates from the government regarding the well-being of the remaining individuals.
He said several questions remain unanswered including what exactly transpired and how many individuals are still present in the country. Pringle recounted that efforts were made to get assistance from the governor general to initiate a probe into the incident but he was told that the attorney general was investigating the matter, and he will provide a report.
However, the Opposition MP is asking what has happened to this investigation and why a report has not been made public.
“And again, Mr Speaker, we have to understand that while establishing these relationships, we cannot, Mr Speaker, have another situation like what we encountered with the Antigua Airways.
“Because, Mr Speaker, I realize the government is quite silent on this matter, but we would have had at least, what, 900 Africans [come] to the shore of Antigua and Barbuda. And it is a sad case, because the Prime Minister tends to blame the Opposition for everything that is happening in Antigua and Barbuda.
In response to Pringle’s queries, Prime Minister Gaston Browne reiterated that the government made efforts to facilitate the West Africans by allowing them to remain here and be integrated into the society.
While calling the MP’s timing opportunistic, Browne reminded that at least two international organisations would have investigated the matter.
“We offered two charter planes to take them back. In fact, there was a charter flight that came here to take them back to Lagos and they refused to board the flight. We then decided, out of humanitarian interests, to give them stay here and to assimilate them into the domestic economy. At the time, we invited the [IOM], that is the International Migration Organization, as well as UNHCR to interview each of these migrants and to determine whether or not indeed they are refugees. And evidently, states have an obligation to treat refugees in a particular way.
“Now during the interviews, they said categorically to the [IOM] and UNHCR officials that they do not intend to stay in Antigua and Barbuda, notwithstanding the benevolence of our administration in which we decided that they could stay, they could work, they could live here.
“Reflecting on the initial Antigua Airways flight on Independence Day, November 1st, 2022, it arrived with over 300 passengers, and all of them returned without any issues.”
However, he said it appears that some individuals on that first flight were actually assessing the ease of entry into Antigua and Barbuda. Consequently, the second flight, which took place in December 2022 or January 2023, unfortunately carried a large number of conflict migrants from Cameroon.
Browne said these individuals presented themselves as tourists upon arrival, adding that the government later discovered their true intention was to use Antigua as a transit point for smuggling into the United States.
Browne says that the government could not stop the West Africans from leaving the country, since they were determined to do so.
“And it only came to our attention that they were smuggling out of the country when on one of the trips, the boat capsized between Antigua and St Kitts. Now what seemed to have happened is that most of them would have literally smuggled out of the country. I don’t know that we would have had any control over that when people are determined to do things that are illegal.
“There’s little that anyone can do. I mean, how can you stop anyone, for example, from leaving this country by boat? What are you going to do? Put policemen and gunboats on, what, 365 beaches with all these keys and beaches around the place? So let us be reasonable. And look, everything does not have to be politics,” PM Browne said in supporting the resolution.
Browne also said that a similar Air Services Agreement is expected to be established with Ghana and Morocco.
