Antigua and Barbuda is proposing that the United States pay the full cost of receiving and supporting any third-country nationals transferred under an agreement being negotiated between the two governments.

Draft operating procedures read Saturday on Pointe FM’s

Browne and Browne Show

call for U.S.-funded accommodation, food, medical care, documentation, local transportation, interpretation, administration and security. The proposed support would continue until a transferred person leaves Antigua and Barbuda or obtains an independent lawful basis to remain.

Prime Minister Gaston Browne said the government wants to ensure the arrangement places no financial burden on Antigua and Barbuda.

“We don’t wish to be burdened financially by these third-country nationals,” he said.

Under the draft, no transfer would take place until financial and operational arrangements satisfactory to Antigua and Barbuda were in place. The proposal anticipates that the United States would fund the International Organization for Migration, or another organization agreed to by both governments, to coordinate services and assist with voluntary returns.

That organization would have to agree to participate under a separate arrangement. If its assistance were unavailable, reduced or discontinued, the draft says further transfers would stop unless Antigua and Barbuda accepted an alternative. Support for people already transferred would still need to continue.

The cost provision is one of several safeguards Browne’s government added after rejecting terms proposed by Washington. Antigua and Barbuda has also proposed a maximum of seven transfers every three months, with written approval required for each individual.

Browne said the revised proposal has been sent to the United States for a response.

The funding terms have not been agreed to by both governments

and no transfer under the proposed procedures has been announced.

This article was originally published by Antigua News Room. Read the original article here: Antigua Wants U.S. to Cover All Costs of Deportee Transfers.