Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves says the United States has not asked his government to host any deportees from other countries, but a Yemini who was being deported asked to be sent to St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG).
“I said, ‘Absolutely not!’ The only people who will take are our nationals,” Gonsalves said on NBC Radio on Wednesday.
Yemen is a war-ravaged country in Southwest Asia, bordering Saudi Arabia, Oman, The Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea.
Human Rights Watch says Yemen is one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises, with more than 21 million Yemenis in need of assistance and suffering from inadequate food, health care, and infrastructure.
The Donald Trump administration is pushing ahead with its policy of mass deportation of undocumented immigrants in the United States.
Under the policy, Washington is proposing to deport people to countries in which they are not citizens if those third countries agree to receive the immigrants.
On Wednesday, Gonsalves was asked whether SVG, like Grenada, had been asked to host deportees from other countries
“No. There was a general document which had been sent out from the US Embassy, … with lots of things about migration policy, and if any government may wish to host, they can indicate to them,” the prime minister said.
“It was no request for us,” Gonsalves said, adding that the document had been sent out generally.
“But last week, a person from Yemen who’s going to be deported — I don’t know what is the reason why, if the people in ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) tell him, ‘Well, you can select from any number of these countries. Let me ask them whether they will take you.’
“But nobody from the US government asked, but this person who is to be deported, sent to our consul general in New York, asking — he don’t want to go back Yemen.”
Gonsalves said he wrote, “Absolutely not!” on the document.
The prime minister spoke of a letter from his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Frederick Stephenson to the United States, saying that Kingstown needs more information when its nationals are being deported so as to help with their resettlement and other matters.
“But I haven’t gotten any request from the US government to accept anybody,” the prime minister said.
He said it was not the first time a non-Vincentian had asked to be deported to SVG.
“So, this is not anything connected with the new regime. A man, he getting deported, and he said, ‘Boy, I am sure that other countries in the region and other parts of the world can take me.’
“But I ain’t taking you,” the prime minister said.