KINGSTON, Jamaica, May 30, CMC – The Jamaica government has approved the establishment of a national technical working group on voluntary and involuntary migrants.
Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Kamina Johnson Smith said that the working group will be chaired by the Planning Institute of Jamaica (PIOJ) and forms part of the Andrew Holness government’s expanded reintegration and rehabilitation strategy.
Johnson Smith told reporters that the technical group will comprise several ministries, departments and agencies, as well as civil society partners with oversight being provided by the Ministries of National Security, and Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.
She said the working group’s mandate is to coordinate reintegration services and to ensure that returnees are supported in a structured and sustainable manner.
“This includes their reception, verification, health checks, security, vetting and access to social and legal support. Where necessary – and I say this to citizens who are particularly concerned about those who return with serious criminal antecedents – monitoring and detention measures are in place; they will be applied,” Johnson Smith said, noting that the grouping of returnees who will be supported is not homogenous.
“We now have a subgrouping of those who are returning of their own motion, determining the circumstances in the US to not be where they wish to remain, and those who are being returned, those who have had the decision made for them.”
She confirmed that approximately 2,500 Jamaicans have been confirmed for removal from the US over a period of time to be determined by logistics, their own legal processes, and other factors.
“The government remains committed, together with our partners, to treating all returnees with dignity and fairness while upholding our national security interests,” she said.
Earlier this week, the government sought to reassure the public that the return of deported from overseas territories is neither unexpected nor unmanaged.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security Dr. Horace Changsaid the government continues to monitor the matter carefully and remains in direct communication with its counterparts in the US and other jurisdictions.
He said that Jamaica, like other sovereign nations, is obligated under international law to accept the return of its citizens who are subject to deportation.
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