By Bert Wilkinson|Caribbean Life
Photos: YouTube|Wikimedia Commons
Tiny St. Lucia is this week preparing to accept its first batch of non-national deportees the US is dumping on the Eastern Caribbean tourism paradise under its controversial but forced resettlement program targeting regional member states.
Foreign Minister Alva Baptiste told reporters that five men and one woman will form part of the ‘guinea pig’ group that will arrive in the country under the so-called third country deportation program.
Some regional governments have accused the US of forcing their hand in accepting the deportees by applying pressure in various forms, including restricting tourism visa privileges, as was done at the end of last year, and imposing visa bonds on applicants of up to $20,000, as was imposed recently.
The bilateral agreement, says Baptiste, will see the island accepting 10 non-nationals every quarter even as anxieties remain about funding for their boarding, lodging, and other logistical requirements. The minister says that authorities are depending on the International Organization for Migration (IOM) collaborating with various sub-committee groups from his ministry and the immigration department…
Several other regional bloc member states, including Jamaica, Guyana, Dominica, and Grenada, among others, have either signed off on formal deportee agreements with the US or are in advanced stages of negotiations.
