‘They are not criminals’

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Senator Kamina Johnson Smith has reiterated that individuals sent to Jamaica under the third-country national (TCN) agreement with the United States (US) have zero criminal antecedents other than breaching that country’s immigration laws. Speaking during Wednesday’s Post Cabinet Press briefing at Jamaica House in St Andrew, Johnson Smith said that detail was worth repeating given apparent confusion in some quarters about the individuals transiting the country under the arrangement. “There are countries which have agreed to receive criminals. They exist; when the United States speaks about sending criminals under TCN agreements they send them to those countries. Jamaica is not one of them. Our country has negotiated arrangements whereby persons with criminal antecedents will not be sent to Jamaica,” the foreign affairs minister stressed. “Other than having broken the United States immigration laws, that is having illegally entered the US, they are not criminals, those are the persons who are sent to transit Jamaica. So, when the US says that under TCN agreements criminals are being sent, they are not including Jamaica,” she emphasised. On Tuesday, United States Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin shared on social media that “through engaging in fully legal third-country removals, [and] thanks to TCN agreements with various countries, we have been able to deport some of the worst criminal illegal aliens from the US, including those who are so barbaric that even their home countries won’t take them back“. According to Johnson Smith, the individuals are “vetted on the US side and they are vetted on the Jamaica side before they enter Jamaica”. “Our arrangement does not agree to receive any criminals… so I just wanted to make that clear,” she added. In the meantime, in providing an update on the 22 third country nationals sent here, Johnson Smith said compared to Tuesday when she reported that one person returned home and 21 continue to be in country with one requesting to stay, nine have since departed while departure arrangements are at various stages of processing for the remaining 11. The first 22 TCNs – 15 males and seven females – arrived at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston on October 13. They are under the care of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) while arrangements are made to facilitate their return to their respective home countries. The governments of Jamaica and the US, earlier this year, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to facilitate the temporary reception of individuals in Jamaica before return to their countries of origin. The MOU was inked amidst US efforts to manage regional structured migration. The MOU provides for its suspension if 10 third country nationals apply to remain in Jamaica through asylum applications or other humanitarian processes. The full details of that MOU are yet to be made public. The Jamaican Government has previously stated that under the agreement the country will not accept more than 25 individuals per fortnight.