More than 300 Barbudans have reportedly indicated interest in obtaining legal ownership of the lands they currently occupy for a crown grant of EC$1.
The government offered Barbudans that option in 2017, after the passage of Hurricane Irma.
Former Barbuda Council member Tyrone Beazer says the names have been presented to Prime Minister Gaston Browne – a claim the PM corroborated to Observer on Thursday afternoon.
Beazer said he was one of the persons registering names of Barbudans who were interested in the offer.
“I took the names up by the prime minister; me myself collect over three hundred names and a lot of people who know and a lot of people who know what the value of land is,” he said.
Being unable to obtain a land title is said to be affecting the livelihoods of some Barbudans.
Beazer says many cannot further their children’s education or own other properties because they are unable to use their lands as collateral.
“I think if we did have a title to the land, a lot of us would have been more educated; a lot of us would be more industrious because they would have something to bargain with.”
“I personally believe there are a lot of Barbudans here who fall short – did not get to go to university – because their family could not afford it,” Beazer explained.