“An Injustice to the People”: MP Trevor Walker says Government brought Parliament a Matter Affecting Every Corner of National Life — Without Consulting the People

Barbuda MP Trevor Walker told Parliament on Monday that the government’s handling of the third-country deportee debate amounts to an injustice to the people of Antigua and Barbuda — a matter touching public safety, national security, healthcare, housing, labour, public finance, constitutional rights, international law and so many other areas was brought to the House without a single public consultation, with documents circulated the night before, and without the involvement of any institution of civil society.

“What is brought to the Parliament today is an injustice to the people of Antigua and Barbuda,” MP Walker said. “Coming to this Parliament without any sort of town hall meeting, any involvement, interaction with anybody else — and this is what it’s about.”

A Matter That Touches Everything

MP Walker’s objection was not merely procedural. It was grounded in the sheer breadth of what the deportee arrangement implicates — an arrangement so far-reaching in its consequences that no responsible government, he argued, could justify bringing it to Parliament without first hearing from the people and institutions whose lives and work it will affect.

Public safety: accepting individuals whom US Secretary of State Marco Rubio described as “the most despicable human beings… perverts, pedophiles, child rapists” into a country where, as Retired Assistant Commissioner of Police Nuffield Burnett told a town hall last week, the police force is already struggling to cope with existing crime.

National security: introducing foreign nationals with unknown backgrounds into a small island state with limited intelligence and surveillance capacity, months before hosting a Commonwealth summit and a state visit by foreign dignitaries including the British monarch.

Public health: absorbing individuals who may arrive with medical needs into a healthcare system that cannot reopen its own cancer centre after several years and whose primary hospital is under perpetual strain.

Public finance: funding the accommodation, maintenance, healthcare, and administration of deportees in a country that has already raised the passenger head tax, the fuel variation charge, the windfall tax, vehicle licensing fees and ABST most of which were increased after the April 30th election — and the PM warns of water rate increases to come.

Labour: introducing deportees into an economy where the Prime Minister’s claim of “full employment” is based on anecdotes rather than any labour market survey, and where Antiguans and Barbudans are already competing with workers imported by the government from other countries.

Housing: placing deportees in a country with documented housing shortages and rising rental costs, where the government has not disclosed where any transferred individuals would live.

Constitutional rights: admitting individuals who, as MP Walker himself pointed out, would immediately enjoy the full protections of the Antigua and Barbuda Constitution upon arrival.

International law: triggering treaty obligations under refugee and statelessness conventions that the country’s own White Paper admits it has no domestic legislation to fulfil.

Each of these dimensions demands expert input, public deliberation, and institutional engagement. None were facilitated by the government.

No Town Hall. No Civil Society. No Experts.

MP Walker was specific about who should have been consulted before Parliament was asked to vote — and who was not.

“A matter like this ought to have had a wide, and I would say island-wide, slew of consultations — even with the bar association, civil society, the chamber of commerce,” he said. “If you don’t want it to be in a situation where you have the average person coming and not understanding, get some buy-in and consensus.”

The Antigua and Barbuda Bar Association — the professional body representing the lawyers who would need to navigate the constitutional and international law implications of accepting deportees — was not consulted. The Chamber of Commerce — representing the businesses that would bear the economic consequences of any disruption to tourism, investor confidence, or the country’s international reputation — was not consulted. Civil society organisations — including those working in child protection, women’s safety, community development, and public health, all of whom would be directly affected — were not consulted.

The only public consultation held before the parliamentary debate was organised not by the government, but by the opposition — at the UPP’s town hall at the Moravian Conference Centre on July 9. The government itself held no public forum of any kind.

Documents Delivered the Night Before the Debate

The absence of public consultation was compounded by the manner in which Parliament itself was prepared for the debate. MP Walker told the House that he received his parliamentary package on Saturday with no MOU attached. At approximately 7:36 p.m. on Monday evening — the night before Tuesday’s sitting — an email arrived with the MOU apparently attached, but the file was corrupted and could not be opened.

When MP Walker arrived at the House on Tuesday morning, a physical copy was sitting on his desk. It was unsigned.

“Your Chief Parliamentary Counsel must have gotten instructions. She circulated the bills, and it was not circulated with our bills,” MP Walker said. “What is the last-minute thing? What is it about?”

He then turned to the government’s own MPs for St. Peter (Rawdon Turner), St. Mary’s South (Dwayne George) and All Saints West (Anthony Smith) and asked whether any of them had seen the MOU before the morning of the debate. None could confirm they had.

Parliament was therefore being asked to debate and approve the principles governing an arrangement that affects public safety, national security, healthcare, housing, labour, public finance, constitutional rights, and international treaty obligations — based on a document most members had never seen, circulated in corrupted form the night before, and presented in unsigned draft on the morning of the sitting.

“Antigua and Barbudans Deserve Better Than This”

MP Walker framed the failure of consultation not as a political complaint but as a democratic one — arguing that the sheer scale of what the deportee arrangement touches makes public engagement not merely desirable but essential.

“Antiguans and Barbudans deserve better than this,” he said.

The point is difficult to refute. Proposing to accept deportees from the most powerful nation on earth — individuals whose very presence will engage questions of criminal justice, border security, healthcare access, housing supply, employment competition, constitutional protections, international treaty compliance, and the fiscal capacity of a state already raising taxes on its own citizens to make ends meet — the government chose to bring that proposal to Parliament without holding a single public meeting, without seeking input from a single professional body, and without giving its own members of Parliament more than a few hours to examine the foundational documents.

MP Walker’s word for it was simple and precise: an injustice.

The resolution passed with the government’s majority.