A bold and highly controversial call from Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne has put public safety policy, human rights norms and the nation’s stance on a U.S. third-country deportation deal at the center of public discourse. Speaking during his regular Saturday broadcast on local outlet Pointe FM, Browne delivered unflinching remarks urging law enforcement to adopt a far more aggressive approach toward youth involved in a recent uptick in petty street crime, specifically calling for physical force to be used against suspected chain snatchers, even as he acknowledged fierce pushback from human rights defenders is inevitable.
The prime minister’s comments came against a backdrop of ongoing negotiations between the Caribbean nation and the United States over a proposed third-country deportation arrangement, which would see the U.S. transfer certain non-U.S. nationals to Antigua and Barbuda for processing. Browne used the broadcast to double down on his government’s non-negotiable position: any individual transferred to the country under the deal must hold no criminal record, with the single exception of U.S. immigration violations.
Highlighting the years of consistent work Antigua and Barbuda has invested to keep its relatively low national crime rate intact, Browne voiced growing alarm over a recent wave of opportunistic petty street offenses. “We have seen a rise in small but disruptive offenses, like thieves snatching gold chains straight off victims’ necks,” Browne told listeners. “I do not understand why police have not yet set up targeted sting operations to crack down on these young thieves, and put some physical force on them when they catch them. The time for soft approaches is over. Hit them, strike them when they are caught doing this. Human rights advocates can say what they want – these young thieves deserve to be confronted with force.”
Browne argued that opening the country’s borders to deportees with serious criminal histories would put the nation’s hard-won public safety gains at unacceptable risk. While he stopped short of rejecting all transfers outright, he emphasized the government is holding firm to its demand that U.S. authorities formally certify that every individual transferred meets two core criteria: no prior criminal convictions, and no serious communicable health conditions.
“The only criminal violation we are willing to accept is an offense related to U.S. immigration law,” Browne clarified, adding that Antigua and Barbuda has a long-standing tradition of treating immigration violations as a regulatory, not criminal, matter. The country has repeatedly used amnesty programs to regularize the status of undocumented migrants rather than prosecuting them, he noted.
He further stressed that the small island nation lacks the specialized infrastructure, training and institutional capacity to manage sophisticated offenders who have developed advanced criminal skills in the United States. “We simply do not have the level of sophistication required to handle hardened, well-trained criminals that learned their trade in your society,” Browne stated he told U.S. negotiators. “If you send these people to our country, what do you expect will happen? You would risk destroying everything we have built.”