标签： Antigua and Barbuda

WASHINGTON, DC – September 17, 2026 – In an official media statement released this week by the Embassy of Antigua and Barbuda to the United States, Sir Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to Washington, confirmed that talks with the U.S. government will get underway again soon in response to a formal request from the American side. The negotiations center on a proposal that would see Antigua and Barbuda accept a small cohort of third-country nationals who have been removed from U.S. territory.

Residents of Antigua and Barbuda will soon gain greater flexibility in their mobile telecommunications choices, as the national government has formally announced that mobile number portability (MNP) will be rolled out nationwide starting November 23. This long-planned policy reform will eliminate one of the most frustrating barriers to switching mobile service providers, allowing customers to move between the country’s three main operators — the Antigua Public Utilities Authority (APUA), Digicel, and Flow — without sacrificing the phone numbers they have used for years.

The official timeline and project update was shared by Maurice Merchant, Director General of Communications, during a post-Cabinet media briefing held this Thursday. Merchant’s announcement came one day after Cabinet received a comprehensive progress briefing from a cross-stakeholder team that included a senior APUA manager, a senior official from the Ministry of Telecommunications, and the independent consultant contracted to lead technical implementation of the MNP system.

The journey to launch MNP has not been straightforward. Planning for the system first began in 2022, but the project has encountered a series of persistent technical hurdles over the past two years. The single biggest challenge has been harmonizing connections between the distinct, incompatible networks and operating systems run by the three competing providers. To address this gap, project teams have carried out rounds of extensive testing and retesting, designed to ensure that number transfers work smoothly for end users with no disruptions to service.

Delivering a functional MNP system has also required substantial joint investment from both the national government and the three participating telecommunications companies, in addition to bringing in specialized outside technical consultants to guide implementation.

Under the current approved timeline, all initial porting trials are scheduled to wrap up by October 23. After that milestone, teams will conduct additional routing and end-to-end testing to confirm that phone calls, text messaging, data services, and other core mobile functions operate correctly after a number is transferred between networks. Testing will also be extended to retail service locations, where customers will submit their transfer requests in person, to verify that in-person workflows function as intended for both customers and staff.

Regulators and project leaders have emphasized that rigorous pre-launch testing is a non-negotiable step: their top priority is confirming that every part of the customer experience, from the initial transfer request to final activation of the number on the new network, works exactly as designed before the system is opened to the general public.

Merchant noted that the November 23 launch date was also chosen intentionally to align with Antigua and Barbuda’s hosting of major high-profile Commonwealth events taking place later this month. Based on the current technical progress and preliminary testing results, government officials are confident the project will meet this announced deadline.

For mobile customers across the country, MNP solves a long-standing pain point. For years, the need to get a new phone number — and the burden of notifying all contacts, employers, and clients of the change — has been one of the main reasons customers choose to stay with a provider they may be unhappy with, rather than switching to a competing operator with better pricing or service. Under the new system, customers will be able to switch between any combination of the three providers, retaining their existing number through the entire process.

Merchant reaffirmed that MNP is a service the general public has repeatedly requested over many years, and delivering this reform remains a core commitment of the current administration.

The government of Antigua and Barbuda is currently developing a single, centralized public registry that will include the full names and photographs of all registered sex offenders, the nation’s Director General of Communications Maurice Merchant confirmed during a post-Cabinet media briefing Thursday.

At present, information about accused and convicted sex offenders is only released to the public incrementally, as legal cases move through the stages of arrest, charging, and final conviction. The new unified list will consolidate all this scattered information into one accessible resource that any member of the public can reference, a shift designed to improve transparency and public safety.

“What the authorities are looking at is having a general list, a comprehensive list, and publishing that,” Merchant explained to reporters during the briefing.

Merchant emphasized that the project is still ongoing, and no firm timeline for the public launch of the registry has been set. He also declined to clarify a key outstanding detail: whether the finalized list will include all offenders already entered into the existing confidential registry, or if it will only apply to individuals convicted after the new public disclosure rules go into effect.

Thursday’s announcement came as part of a broader policy discussion centered on addressing sexual violence against women and children, and the government’s ongoing push to strengthen legal penalties and enhance public protection measures.

In addition to advancing the public registry plan, the Cabinet has thrown its support behind a proposal put forward by Prime Minister Gaston Browne to evaluate chemical castration as a sentencing option for repeat sex offenders. Merchant added that other legislative reforms, including steeper fines, longer prison sentences, and additional penalty enhancements, are also still under review by government officials.

Further concrete details about the government’s full package of reforms targeting sexual offences and expanding child protection are expected to be released when the nation’s Parliament convenes on September 28. Until the comprehensive public registry is finalized and published, the existing policy of releasing information about sex offenders on a case-by-case basis will remain in effect, Merchant confirmed.

A controversial proposal from Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne that would introduce chemical castration as an optional punishment for repeat child sex offenders has captured widespread public attention, drawing overwhelming popular support alongside targeted legal and ethical pushback. In public online discussions, hundreds of commentators have backed the plan, framing it as a necessary, urgent measure to safeguard vulnerable children and cut rates of recidivism among convicted sexual offenders. Many respondents went even further than Browne’s original proposal, arguing that the policy should be expanded to apply to all convicted sex offenders, not just those who have reoffended after their first conviction. “If we implement this after the first offense, they will never get the chance to reoffend,” one commenter argued, while another described the prime minister’s plan as a long-overdue positive step toward community protection. The Caribbean Movement for Peace and Healing has also thrown its support behind the proposal, echoing calls for the plan to be given full, serious consideration by national lawmakers. The organization emphasized that the safety and rights of children, women, and other marginalized vulnerable groups must take priority in any justice policy reform. It added that if the policy moves forward, any chemical castration program should be conducted within legal boundaries, under strict medical supervision, and integrated into a broader, comprehensive approach to sexual offending that includes robust prison sentences, targeted rehabilitation programs, post-release monitoring, and a publicly accessible national registry of convicted sex offenders. Even amid broad public support, some policy analysts and community members have urged caution, raising key questions about the practical and legal viability of the proposal. Critics point out that chemical castration relies on ongoing, regular administration of hormone-regulating medication to reduce sex drive, and its effects are fully reversible once treatment stops – meaning long-term compliance is required for it to act as a deterrent. Additional unresolved questions have been raised about how the policy would apply to female sex offenders, the risk of irreversible harm to people wrongfully convicted of sexual offenses, and whether the policy complies with Antigua and Barbuda’s binding international human rights obligations. For his part, Prime Minister Browne has defended the proposal, framing it as a response to the failures of current justice policy. He argues that traditional prison sentences alone have failed to deliver adequate justice to victims and have not been effective at preventing convicted offenders from committing new crimes after their release. As of yet, the proposal has not been drafted into formal legislation, and it remains to be seen whether it will advance through the national legislative process.