KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Education, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon, says it was the United States (US) Government that initiated discussions regarding the Third Country Nationals (TCN) programme.

“It is a US initiative. So, the US would have come to us on that Third Country Nationals programme,” Morris Dixon said.

She was speaking during a Jamaica Information Service (JIS) Ministerial Update with Chief Executive Officer, Giovanni Dennis, at Jamaica House on Thursday.

The comments come after it was revealed that Jamaica has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) facilitating the transit of individuals transferred from the US through Jamaica en route to their final destinations.

The information minister said that the TCN is being conflated with separate discussions on exploring opportunities to attract skilled workers to Jamaica involving Minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister responsible for Efficiency, Innovation and Digital Transformation, Ambassador Audrey Marks.

She noted that shortly after the diplomatic cable now being discussed in the media was sent, clarification was provided regarding the distinction between the two matters.

“It’s really for that reason that when you’re doing bilateral negotiations, they tend not to really be public, because you have several different iterations of the conversation,” she pointed out.

Addressing Wednesday’s post-Cabinet Press Briefing at Jamaica House, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Security and Peace, Dr Horace Chang, said that the decision to enter the agreement was reached following extensive negotiations between the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and National Security and Peace, the Office of the Prime Minister and lawyers from the Attorney General’s Office.

He said that individuals facilitated under the agreement are not being brought into Jamaica as permanent migrants.

The agreed quota is for 25 individuals to be facilitated every two weeks for transit through Jamaica to a third territory, including their home countries.

“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 had explained.

— JIS