Dear Editor,

My fellow citizens, a passport should be able to guarantee you at least a landing port for security and welfare support.

On April 2, 2020 the Jamaica Government refused to accept 45 Jamaicans citizens from the ship Marella Discovery 2. One could argue that this was done so as to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus, though I have not yet heard of any such case on-board the vessel.

In any event, we are dealing with our own people, Jamaica is their birth land. Even if we had to take them off the vessel under stringent security measures into trailers for 40 days and 40 nights of quarantine, that would be seen fulfilling our obligation as a nation to our citizens.

Our Government has passed on their responsibilities to the ocean; hence, 45 Jamaicans are now left on their own with their “rights of return” being removed and abused.

Let us remind ourselves there are numerous international laws that forbid such practices that our Government ignored. The United Nations Charter, as it pertains to Human Rights, Article 15 clearly states “(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality”, Article 13 “(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country; and Article 9 “No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile”.

I am waiting to see how patriotic we are as citizens to our fellow Jamaicans who are now floating without hope and a home.

Our morality, sense of compassion, and the ability to extend humanitarian gestures as a nation are now questionable. Let’s see if the respective media outlets, along with their investigative journalistic characters, will allow this story to have a plausible end.

The excuse given in a joint statement from the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of national security is so disturbing, repugnant, and indicates how some of our leaders are lacking in empathy and not able to manage their portfolio. We should now demand an apology from the prime minister — who I believe has done a good job before this incident — along with corrective measures to get our citizens home.

And, where is the loud speaker of the Opposition? Member of Parliament Fitz Jackson needs to take this as an urgent issue to Parliament and not just offer a sound bite on social media.

It must be something of value to have a Jamaican passport. I hope I don’t have to change my passport to reflect another nationality so as to be able to travel around the world with pride and dignity.

Neville Grant

nevillejamrock@gmail.com