Church should have been consulted on US-Jamaica deportee pact, says St James Ministers Fraternal chairman
ST JAMES, Jamaica — Chairman of the St James Ministers Fraternal, Reverend Glendon Powell, has raised concerns over the Government’s recently signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United States to accept deported foreign nationals under a third-country nationals (TCN) agreement, arguing that the Church and other stakeholders should have been brought into the discussion before the deal was finalised.
Powell, speaking on the issue during a press conference at the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay on Wednesday, said the lack of consultation reflects a wider problem in national leadership where major decisions are often made without enough engagement with critical sectors of society.
“I won’t speak fulsome on it. But I just want to say again, we have leaders in our nation who are not bringing the stakeholders to sit together to flesh things out properly before implementation. And that is a problem,” Powell said.
“If we are always going to become reactive and not proactive, I believe that before any decision is made, the stakeholders- it is not just the State that runs a country- it’s Church and State,” he added.
Powell insisted that any policy likely to impact the broader population should first be subject to talks with national stakeholders.
“I believe that anything of that nature that is going to affect all our people, we need to sit down at the table and have this fulsome discussion before implementation,” he said.
His comments come amid growing public debate over the agreement under which Jamaica is expected to temporarily receive foreign nationals deported from the United States.
Minister of National Security Dr Horace Chang recently disclosed that the first batch of 25 foreign nationals could arrive on the island at any time, although he admitted he could not say exactly when they would land, where they would be housed, or how long they would remain.
The security minister also acknowledged that there is a possibility some of the deportees may choose to stay in Jamaica rather than move on.
“One of the conditions is that they must be English-speaking,” Chang said, while noting that in countries with similar TCN arrangements, most deportees typically leave within two weeks.
The disclosure has triggered concern among some sections of society, with questions being raised about the social, economic, and security implications of the agreement, as well as the level of public consultation undertaken before its signing.
