Caribbean Leaders Reject Debt Relief as Slavery Reparations

Caribbean officials have stated that debt relief and development assistance from the United Kingdom cannot replace reparations for centuries of slavery. This position emerged as British Prime Minister Andy Burnham announced a new approach to the issue on Friday.

Burnham stated that he wanted to begin a structured dialogue on slavery and was open to Britain issuing an apology. However, he ruled out direct reparations. Instead, he proposed discussions on resetting debts for smaller Commonwealth nations and allocated £40 million, roughly $54 million, for critical infrastructure in the Caribbean over the next three years.

Ralph Gonsalves, a former prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines and a senior figure in the Repair Campaign, said the region would likely welcome the offers. But he warned that Caribbean nations would resist any attempt to treat debt restructuring or development aid as a form of reparation.

Gonsalves pointed to a 10-point plan drafted by the Caribbean Community’s reparations commission. The document specifically asks for debt cancellation rather than restructuring. It also calls for monetary compensation, arguing that existing debts in former colonies are intergenerational and tied to centuries of colonial extraction.

“When I listened to Andy Burnham, and I listened to the king, and they’re talking about what is helpful is not reparations, but for them to work on specific things like debt relief, and education and health, and climate change infrastructure,” Gonsalves said. “Now, all those things are within the 10-point plan. But they are also within the sustainable development goals of 2015, which we all signed on to at the United Nations.”

Bell Ribeiro-Addy, a Labour MP and chair of the House of Commons’ all-party parliamentary group for Afrikan Reparations, emphasized the need for agency in these negotiations. Speaking at an event to launch a global reparations caravan, she stated that reparative justice must be decided by those affected. “If it is done to us, it is not reparations,” she said.

Gonsalves added that development assistance remains discretionary on the part of the UK. Prof Kingsley Abbott, a human rights lawyer at the University of London, agreed that harmed communities must have a decisive say. A Foreign Office spokesperson said the prime minister aims to renew the relevance of the Commonwealth by facing the past together and focusing on a future with equality and security.