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A retired senior law enforcement leader in Antigua and Barbuda has sounded a stark alarm over the Caribbean nation’s ability to absorb a planned influx of third-country deportees sent from the United States, warning that the arrangement would deepen already severe public safety and policing challenges the country currently faces.

Speaking at a United Progressive Party town hall focused on the government’s recently released policy White Paper, former Assistant Commissioner of Police Nuffield Burnette framed the proposal as a high-risk gamble that the country can ill afford. With the island nation’s law enforcement apparatus already stretched thin by persistent domestic crime, Burnette questioned why local leaders would voluntarily agree to take on unplanned additional responsibilities that would further strain institutional capacity.

“If our law enforcement agencies are already failing to keep up with day-to-day domestic crime, what will happen when we add this new layer of demands laid out in the White Paper?” Burnette said during the event. “We need to make our position clear to the country’s leadership while we still have the chance: we do not support this potentially damaging proposal as it stands.”

Burnette also pushed back against the common narrative that Antigua and Barbuda ranks among the safest nations in the Caribbean. He argued that official assessments that rely almost exclusively on homicide rates paint an incomplete and misleading picture of the country’s true crime landscape, erasing the widespread impact of violent home invasions and other offenses that leave long-term psychological trauma on survivors.

To illustrate his point, he referenced a string of fatal home invasion attacks carried out by young offenders years earlier, saying these incidents prove the country’s public safety challenges are far more severe than official cross-border comparisons often acknowledge. “No crime leaves a deeper trauma than a home invasion,” Burnette explained. “Our homes are supposed to be our safe sanctuaries, our castles. When intruders break into that space and commit acts like sexual assault within those four walls, that means we have a very serious crisis that cannot be ignored.”

The retired senior officer also cast doubt on the accuracy of the government’s official crime statistics, noting that a large share of criminal incidents are never reported to police, and that officials have been accused of downplaying the true scale of crime to project a more positive image. “I made a deliberate choice not to bring any official statistics with me tonight,” Burnette said. “The numbers are not reliable. People do not report every crime they experience, and what the government releases to the public rarely matches the actual reality of crime across the country.”

Burnette went on to criticize the performance of Antigua and Barbuda’s Royal Police Force, pointing to systemic issues including slow emergency response times, gaps in leadership, and a steady decline in overall operational effectiveness. “We are not properly managing the current crime situation in Antigua and Barbuda,” he said. “Police often fail to respond to calls in a timely manner, sometimes do not show up at all, and more often than not their response is unacceptably delayed.”

Against this already challenging backdrop, Burnette argued that accepting third-country deportees would introduce a host of new complexities that the country’s institutions simply do not have the capacity to address. He noted that the government’s White Paper covers a broad range of people including asylum seekers, refugees, and stateless persons, but Antigua and Barbuda currently has no dedicated legal framework in place to manage the arrival and integration of these groups.

“Our existing laws have absolutely no provisions to accommodate any of these populations,” Burnette said. “That is the most alarming detail that stuck with me when I reviewed the proposal.”

Burnette concluded by calling for a full, open national debate on the plan before any binding decisions are made, emphasizing that the proposal carries sweeping long-term implications for the country’s public safety and the future of its law enforcement system.

A fierce political clash has erupted in Antigua and Barbuda over the Gaston Browne administration’s proposed third-country deportee agreement with the United States, with Opposition Leader Jamale Pringle launching sweeping criticism of the government’s diplomatic handling and lack of transparency around the deal.

Speaking at a United Progressive Party (UPP) town hall focused on the government’s recently released White Paper on the arrangement, Pringle argued that the administration failed to secure any meaningful protections for Antigua and Barbuda before committing to accept deportees from third countries transferred via the United States. Far from showcasing the prime minister’s self-proclaimed diplomatic prowess, Pringle said the deal demonstrates mere compliance with U.S. demands rather than successful negotiation on behalf of the island nation.

“Prime Minister Gaston Browne has repeatedly boasted about his diplomatic skills, but a close reading of the available documents makes clear that no real negotiation ever took place,” Pringle told attendees. “The U.S. is set to send these individuals to our country, and we are simply expected to accept them, with no safeguards in place for our nation.”

Pringle pointed to a critical timeline laid out in the White Paper itself to back his claims: the Browne administration signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the U.S. before American officials even submitted draft operating procedures for the arrangement. Only after the MOU was finalized did the government draft counterproposals to the U.S. plan — yet neither the original signed MOU nor the government’s counterproposals have been released to the public or parliament.

This lack of disclosure has forced lawmakers and citizens to debate only the government’s curated description of the deal, rather than the full, official text of the agreement itself, Pringle emphasized. He added that the government’s commitment to the arrangement was locked in long before any parliamentary debate was scheduled, undermining the purpose of public and legislative scrutiny.

“The actual text of the MOU remains behind closed doors,” Pringle said. “Antiguans and Barbudans are not allowed to review the agreement themselves; we only get the version of events the government chooses to publish in the White Paper. That is not how transparent democracy works.”

Pringle also noted that Browne has already confirmed the deportee transfers will move forward regardless of debate, saying “the prime minister admitted it is not a question of if they are coming — he confirmed they are already on their way.”

The opposition leader extended his criticism beyond the deportee deal to question the Browne administration’s overall track record on international diplomacy, pointing to ongoing challenges that have harmed Antigua and Barbuda’s citizens. He noted that the country already faces U.S. visa restrictions, added to existing Canadian visa rules, and is at risk of losing visa-free travel access to the European Union — outcomes he says are evidence of the government’s failed diplomatic strategy.

“Voters have been told for years about the prime minister’s great diplomatic skill, but we have yet to see that skill deliver results for our people,” Pringle said.

He also hit out at the government’s ongoing refusal to share full details of the negotiations with the public, even as the arrangement carries profound social and economic implications for the small island nation. “This is an extraordinarily complex issue, and you cannot have an honest, open debate when all the critical information is hidden from the people who are affected by this deal,” he said.

In response to the opposition’s criticism, the government has reaffirmed that parliament will hold a formal debate on the White Paper outlining the proposed deportee arrangement in the coming period.