KINGSTON — Twenty-two people landed in Kingston on a flight from the United States on Tuesday, boarded a bus and were driven to a location the government has not disclosed. None is Jamaican, Al Jazeera reported, and the agreement that brought them is a document Jamaicans have not been allowed to read.
The flight is the first under a memorandum of understanding Jamaica signed with Washington in June, which makes the island a transit point for people the Trump administration wants moved to their home countries or elsewhere. Foreign Minister Kamina Johnson Smith says they are “not deportees” but nationals of other countries returned through an assisted voluntary return programme.
The opposition is not persuaded. Fitz Jackson, its national security spokesperson, said Jamaicans are “asked to trust a secret document that touches their security.” Johnson Smith answered that questions about the deal “have all been answered,” while adding that the United States has not agreed to make the text public.
What is public does not quite agree with itself. A June statement from the national security ministry said transfers of up to 25 people every two weeks would pause if more than 10 were pending or remaining in Jamaica, and that Jamaica could reject anyone on any flight. When Johnson Smith announced the final procedures in September, the safeguard had a different trigger: suspension if 10 third-country nationals apply to stay through asylum or other humanitarian applications. Both statements say no one with a criminal record will be sent.
The money trail runs back to Washington. The June statement said the United States will support all costs of the transfers, and Johnson Smith said in September that the International Organization for Migration is funded by the US government for this purpose.
Rights groups say people removed this way are denied due process, may face danger in third countries and can have court protection orders sidestepped, Al Jazeera reported. How fast such protection can fall was shown by José Serrano, deported to an Ecuadorean prison after judges reversed his torture deferral in under 23 hours.
A February report by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Democrats quoted an anonymous official saying the purpose of such removals was to “scare people,” Al Jazeera noted. The counts also differ. Johnson Smith said Jamaica joins close to 30 countries with similar arrangements, while Third Country Deportation Watch puts the number with US agreements at no fewer than 35.
Jamaica says it never agreed to receive 10,000 people. The government has not said where the 22 are being held, and has not published the document that says what happens to them next.
