ANTIGUA-PM says government will not resign over boating tragedy

ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, CMC – Prime Minister Gaston Browne says his ruling Antigua and Barbuda Labour Party (ABLP) government will not resign over the tragic boating incident last Tuesday that has resulted in the deaths of three people and at least 13 others still missing off the coast of St. Kitts.

Browne has dismissed the calls for his resignation by the main opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) over the incident, saying those demanding the resignation of his government that was returned to office in January for a third consecutive term were being mischievous.

“This who are calling for resignation, you are not getting the government so easily. You have to go back to the polls, and the people of Antigua and Barbuda will decide,” Browne said.

“So any idea that myself or any member of my administration will resign and…, let’s say, precipitate the governance of the country, it ain’t going to happen, he said, adding that those calling for the resignation “have been out in the cold for the last nine years.

“They cannot wait. They are desperate,” he said.

Rescue teams are reported to have called off the search for 13 others, mainly nationals from West Africa, while the authorities in St. Kitts-Nevis are still questioning 15 others who had been rescued.

Most migrants are reported to have been among the 600 or more nationals from West Africa, mainly Cameroon, who arrived on charter flights late last year on Antigua Airways.

Browne has also dismissed allegations that his government knew of the efforts by the migrants to leave the country, and as a result, there is “blood on our hands.

“Individuals, who are mischievous to suggest that we knew and that there’s blood on our hands and so on, that’s precisely what they are, or they are just ignorant, arrogant and stupid (and) they just trying to capitalize on this miserable situation in which people lost their lives.”

He sought to distance himself personally from the tragedy saying, “I don’t know these people, I never met them, I never had any engagements with anyone with whom they may have spoken with, with any boat captain or any individual whom they may have had an arrangement within Africa.

“What that has to do with my administration? What we did, however, is that we went the dignified way and said, look, even though there were so many of them, we will assimilate them into the domestic society. Still, at the same time, we recognize that it is the first time in our history that we have dealt with so many immigrants coming to the country on such short notice….”

Browne said the island had only dealt with a similar situation a few years ago when it welcomed people from Montserrat and Dominica following the passage of hurricanes in those two Caribbean islands.

“We have not had any situation in which we had individuals external from the region with different culture and so on…and we had to assimilate up to 600 people once,” he said.

Last week, the government said it would launch a “full investigation” into the circumstances that led to the sinking of the vessel with several local and African nationals on board, 40 miles northwest of Antigua and 12 nautical miles south of Conaree in St Kitts during the early hours of Last Tuesday.

Prime Minister Browne said that it is “widely known” that his government has been making “every effort to be helpful to these brothers and sisters from Africa who were stranded on Antigua, including by granting them residence and the opportunity to work.

“We have also been engaged with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the International Organisation for Migration on the best ways of treating them as refugees,” Browne said, adding that two things appear clear from today’s tragic events.

“The first is that the Africans on board the vessel wanted to leave Antigua and Barbuda for another country. The second is that the owners and operators of a vessel in Antigua and Barbuda facilitated their transport on an illegal journey,” he said.