By Robert A Emmanuel
Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS), Sir Ronald Sanders, has expressed his hopes for a closer Caribbean community that will foster a greater political voice on the world stage.
His comments come as the OAS prepares to hold discussions on irregular migration and refugees in the region.
Under the new term, the OAS Permanent Council will address the issue of human trafficking and smuggling in the region, which involves identifying the countries of origin and the factors that drive this illicit activity, as well as examining the impacts and challenges that it poses for both transit and destination states and exploring potential solutions.
As Chair of the Permanent Council, Sir Ronald said the region needs to be united in voice if they hope to convince the rest of the world on issues affecting their vulnerable states.
He said that while only Haiti and, to a lesser extent, Jamaica could be the only countries in the Caribbean where irregular migration could be considered to occur, it was incumbent on the region to ensure its status as a stable democratic region and increase economic opportunities for its citizens.

“Most people try to do that [migrate to other countries] legally, but there are desperate people who do not, and they do it by either declaring themselves refugees or jumping on boats and going through very dangerous passageways to turn up at a border somewhere hoping that they will be given asylum as economic refugees,” he said.
He added that notwithstanding the projected growth for Antigua and Barbuda for 2023 and 2024, “people still need jobs, we still need to address conditions of poverty and we still need to rebuild after these natural disasters that affect us”.
“We have to get the resources that will help us to rebuild when these things happen and since we are not causing these problems — this isn’t a policy decision of the government, it isn’t an action of the people that causes these to happen — these are caused by exogenous shocks like climate change,” Sir Ronald stated.
The career diplomat noted that the recent tropical storm Philippe and its effects on the Antigua Yacht Club Marina was a symbol of the increasing effects of climate change and said that Caribbean nations, like Antigua and Barbuda, cannot depend on international financial institutions and larger nations to reliably assist in recovery efforts after a natural disaster.
“What do they say? ‘Antigua and Barbuda is a high-income country and does not qualify for concessional financing’, and the government has to go borrow money on the open market at interest rates that are high and burden the country,” Sir Ronald said.
He also expressed frustration that countries tend to talk around the issues rather than seeking to directly address the challenges facing the Latin American and Caribbean region.
“The Central American countries suffer far more than we do because they have entire agricultural crops that are destroyed; the farming community is now running from rural areas to urban areas which is already overcrowded,” he said.
He added that, “unfortunately, we don’t, in the Caribbean or the countries of the South, work hard to build the kind of unity to make our voice stronger and more powerful in the international forum that needs to hear us”.
He said that the only way that countries in the region will progress will be not to give up hope and “keep knocking on the door” of the international community.