Yemeni deportee’s request to resettle in SVG rejected

St Vincent and the Grenadines has turned down the request of a national of Yemen who was seeking a place of refuge after he was being deported from the United States of America (USA).

“Absolutely not” was the response which Prime Minister, Dr Ralph Gonsavles said was made to the request from the Western Asian country.

He spoke about the matter on Wednesday, February, 26, 2025 on NBC’s Face to Face morning programme.

He explained that last week, a person from Yemen who was facing deportation from the US, contacted this country’s Consul General in New York asking to be deported to SVG, but the request was turned down.

“ The only people who we will take are our nationals,” the Prime Minister made clear. He was responding to a question whether any request had been made by the USA for SVG to accept nationals of other countries who were being deported from the USA.

Such a request was made to the sister OECS State of Grenada last month. Its Foreign Minister, Joseph Andall said that request was rejected.

“Unfortunately, we are not in a position to do that, and we have communicated that to the US authorities,” he explained.

The Minister however indicated that Grenada would have no problem accepting its own nationals who were being deported from the US.

The US had also made a similar request to the Turks and Caicos administration about accepting deportees from third countries.

That request was rejected.

Gonsalves said this country has not received any such request.