TRAGEDY STRIKES AFRICAN MIGRANTS BOAT LEAVING ANTIGUA

By Staff Writer

Questions are being asked in Antigua and Barbuda about the circumstances which led to the deaths of several African migrants who perished at sea in what is believed to have been a human-trafficking tragedy.

Three people are reported to have died after the boat in which they were travelling believed bound for the United States Virgin Islands capsized and sank off St Kitts.

A passing vessel is said to have rescued a further 16 while over a dozen more were unaccounted for.

According to reports, the Africans believed to be from Cameroon had arrived in Antigua late last year as ‘wealth tourists’ abroad the Antigua Airways venture, a shortlived airline company set up by the Antigua and Barbuda government and Nigerian investors.

The Antigua and Barbuda authorities have started an investigation into the tragedy but already there are calls from the main opposition United People’s Party(UPP) for Prime Minister Gaston Browne to resign.

However, the government says it will not accept responsibility for the tragedy.

“When the migrants undertook to depart Antigua secretly, and boarded a vessel after making a payment allegedly to someone connected to the vessel, they were participants in migrant smuggling, transforming themselves from economic migrants,” it said in a note from a Cabinet meeting.

After just two flights, Mr Browne announced recently that the company, which had itself been mired in controversy over its operating plan, had ceased flying.

Reports from Antigua suggest that over 600 Africans, had arrived in the country without any clear reservations for accommodation, onward travel or return to their homeland.

Several were said to be destitute and were relying on charitable donations.

The situation of the African migrants in the country was one of the dominant issues in elections this past January in which Mr Browne’s Antigua ad Barbuda Labour Party(ABLP) narrowly held on to power.