UPDATE-SECURITY-Jamaica in talks to accept third-country nationals from the United States

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – National Security and Peace Minister Dr. Horace Chang Wednesday confirmed that Jamaica is in negotiations with the United States to accept no more than 25 non-criminal third-country nationals and refugees.

Chang told the weekly post-Cabinet news conference that Jamaica is not receiving any deportees from the United States, except Jamaicans.

“Can I repeat that? We are not accepting; we have no agreement, no understanding to accept deportees from the United States. We accept every month 100 Jamaican deportees and we have the expertise and the staff to manage their entry into Jamaica.”

Chang told reporters that this arrangement is negotiated by professionals so that those Jamaicans being sent home “can come in in a structured, organized manner and be resettled in Jamaica, their homeland.

“The cost of that is all Jamaican. We are receiving, and we have no agreement to; our understanding is to receive convicts from the United States.”

He said that the United States and Jamaica are long-standing allies and “we do have deportees from Jamaica to the United States from time to time, or we have occasionally from the United States convicts, but we have no agreement, no understanding, and there are no discussions to accept convicts from the United States.

“In fact, anyone coming from the United States is reviewed by the NIB (National Intelligence Bureau) before I indicate that they can land in the country. There is no discussion, review, or understanding to accept 10,000 illegal immigrants from the United States.

“Again, the only illegal immigrants we take from the United States are the Jamaicans who are there, and professionals from the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs negotiate those conditions.”

Chang said that Kingston had signed “after extensive negotiations…an agreement to transition to Jamaica, some third-country nationals from the United States.

“The number is 25. It’s an understanding, and at no time will the number exceed 25, because we have the right to refuse anyone at any time, and both parties can terminate the entire agreement without any long-term notice,” Chang said, adding that the “process is basically operational”.

He said that the procedure is still being worked out and being negotiated by the professionals, and it will be some time before we see anyone landing here. Still, when they do, they will come based on an agreed understanding that the government of the United States will pay the initial stay in Jamaica”.

Chang said that these persons would be accommodated by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the United Nations body with which Kingston is working, and, of course, the Ministry of National Security will handle the technical legal aspects.

“There will be nobody detained. Nobody will be detained. That’s part of an international understanding, not a bilateral agreement. The activity to transition to Jamaica is a bilateral agreement negotiated between two governments that are allies in many areas, including the economy, security, and other areas.

“Those are the facts as they are. We are among the number seven to agree in the Caribbean-Latin American region, because our technical team sat down to negotiate all aspects of the issue.

“We are a small country. The staff responsible for the immigration section and that aspect are limited. Therefore, they had to go through the logistics of it,” Chang said, reiterating that “we already received just under 100 legal immigrants.

“They are Jamaicans, but they still have to go through a process,” Chang said, adding that already, agreements were made between the United States government with Panama, Costa Rica, Belize, Antigua and Barbuda, St. Kitts and Nevis, and Barbados.

He said these countries are discussing with other teams, which they expect to conclude in due course.

“We have concluded ours, but we don’t expect any visitors until, as I said, we set off on the operational details, which are not yet settled, and that’s a matter that professionals will negotiate and settle, that we can handle.”

Asked by reporters who initiated the discussions between the two countries and when the agreement was signed, Chang said the Americans have been trying to deal with their immigration issue, “and we are one of their allies in the Caribbean, and we had a discussion that was initiated.

“We had a discussion which has been prolonged, and we came to an agreement,” he said, adding that he signed the agreement last week.

Chang dismissed media reports that Kingston had only made the agreement known after it was leaked that the country had agreed to accept 10,000 deportees from the North American country.

“No, no, the information leaked is different from what I’m talking about, and that’s not the problem. We are conflating two things. Some information was leaked, suggesting that we were in the process of negotiating the reception of 10,000 illegal immigrants.

“There is no such discussion…We signed on Wednesday, and we decided we’d make a statement on it, and I reserved that statement for the event in Montego Bay yesterday, and we would have sent the press release out,” Chang added.