Tiny Caribbean islands reached new asylum arrangements with the United States on Monday, as Dominica said it would begin receiving people seeking U.S. asylum and Antigua and Barbuda announced a separate memorandum of understanding.
The United States reached a deal with Dominica to start sending foreigners seeking U.S. asylum to the small Caribbean nation, according to the Associated Press. The announcement followed recent partial U.S. visa restrictions that Dominica officials said prompted discussions aimed at resolving the entry limitations.
Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit described the arrangement as “one of the primary areas of collaboration” after the country was hit with partial U.S. visa restrictions, AP reported. Skerrit did not provide details on timing, including how soon the U.S. would begin sending asylum-seekers to Dominica.
Skerrit said that during discussions with the U.S. State Department, “there have been careful deliberations of the need to avoid receiving violent individuals or individuals who will compromise the security of Dominica.” He also did not specify other operational details such as the numbers of people involved or how incoming asylum-seekers would be handled.
Dominica has a population of roughly 72,000, and the announcement raised concerns among locals about whether the island has enough resources to absorb asylum-seekers, AP said, citing Thomson Fontaine, leader of the country’s main opposition party. Fontaine said he believed the government had not provided enough information to the public.
Fontaine told AP in a telephone interview that the prime minister still has not told Dominica’s public what he agreed to “in terms of the numbers of persons that are going to come to Dominica, where will they be housed, how will they be taken care of.” He pointed to those unanswered questions as part of the local worry after the announcement.
The U.S. administration of President Donald Trump has signed similar deals with other countries, including Belize and Paraguay, as it continued to pressure countries in Latin America and Africa to take in asylum-seekers, AP reported. The Dominica announcement also arrived amid broader U.S. travel restrictions affecting the region.
AP reported that Antigua and Barbuda also announced Monday that it signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding proposed by the U.S. The U.S. described the memorandum as part of efforts “to share responsibility for refugees already present” in Antigua and Barbuda, according to local government officials.
Local officials said Antigua and Barbuda would not accept anyone with a criminal record. The announcements followed U.S. action last month expanding travel restrictions to an additional 20 countries, including Dominica and Antigua and Barbuda, with the restrictions taking effect Jan. 1.
In their statements, officials in the two island nations did not provide a timeline for when the new arrangements would begin, and Dominica’s opposition leader said the government had not given the public key specifics about scale and implementation.