CONSTITUTIONAL law expert Dr Lloyd Barnett has posed five questions he says the Jamaican Government must answer to satisfy the country about its decision to enter into a third-country national s(TCN) agreement with the United States.

Under the agreement, which the Jamaican Government has maintained was initiated by the United States (US), up to 25 asylum seekers who have unresolved migration cases will temporarily transit through Jamaica en route to their home countries every two weeks. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was supposedly inked amidst US efforts to manage regional structured migration. According to National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang, the people covered under the MOU are not being permanently settled in Jamaica and would only remain on the island while arrangements are made for their onward movement.

Dr Barnett, in a letter to the editor of the Jamaica Observer on Monday, said while government ministers have stated that Jamaica is assisting in the transit of the asylum seekers to their home country, citizens here should be told what countries are those home countries.

The Government, he said, must also say “if they had entered the US as asylum seekers, [and] is Jamaica assisting in their return to a country where they will be subject to torture, victimisation or inhumane treatment”.

According to Dr Barnett, the Andrew Holness-led Jamaica Labour Party Administration must also explain, since the US “has far greater resources than Jamaica”, the reason Jamaica is being used as “a transition station”.

Furthermore, he said the Government must also explain why transit through Jamaica is necessary or logistical given that the US has the greatest facilities for air travel.

In addition, he said Jamaica must declare its position in the event the country to which they are to be eventually returned refuses to take them.

Speaking during an interview on Nationwide News on June 22, Holness insisted that while the Government has signed the MOU for the programme, it has not yet been implemented.

On Tuesday, Audrey Morrison Lawson, proprietor of Midas Immigration Services, a full-service immigration firm based in Miami, Florida, speaking with the Observer about the issue, said the impending arrangement “spells trouble” for Jamaica.

“From what I understand, those who are being detained have an immigration hold, meaning they have broken some immigration law in the United States and are being detained, but a lot of people who are being detained are not being processed. Those who are not being processed, they are being sent to another country to stay for a period of time while their cases are being processed. It is a way to get them out of the United States because even at the end of their processing they will not be able to re-enter the US because they will not win the cases,” Morrison Lawson said.

“If when they are in a third country, they cannot get representation to fight for them, they will end up being unable to re-enter the United States. In the event that their own country does not want them and they cannot re-enter the United States they will become illegals where they are,” she stated.

She said the indication by the Jamaican Government that the individuals will be able to apply for citizenship here is untenable.

“The Jamaican Government is offering citizenship or asylum to these third country nationals but we have social issues too and I just hope that offering them asylum will give them maybe a new lease on life but we know that we are struggling even with our qualified workforce that we have in Jamaica, we still have great struggles and a lot of social issues just dealing with our own population, so bringing these third country nationals might not be in our best interest,” Morrison Lawson reasoned.

She further noted that the individuals to be deported will have a struggle adjusting to life in Jamaica.

“Majority of the people who are illegal in this country, studies will show you that up to about 80 per cent are Hispanic, and you also have another high per cent who come from the continent of Africa, so most of these third-country nationals would be from a totally different culture. Some of them can speak English but I don’t think any of them are relatively close in culture to us. I don’t foresee them having an easy time [being acclimatised],” Morrison Lawson theorised.

“I believe Jamaica might have moved a little too fast on this with deciding to accept third-country nationals because we do have our social issues that need to be worked on and then to take in another set of people who may not be able to fit in, they spell trouble for us and it’s very concerning,” she said further.

Added Morrison Lawson: “Many of them will not be able to re-enter the US because once you break an immigration law or any law for that matter and you are outside of the US you need a waiver to come back and a waiver can only be filed by certain family members immediately. Many of them will not be able to get that waiver because they do not have a qualifying relative to do it. The dilemma from the beginning is that their home country is not accepting them readily, so if they cannot re-enter the US and their home country is not accepting them, then we have bigger problems than we foresee.”

MORRISON LAWSON… the impending arrangement spells trouble for Jamaica.

BARNETT…the Government must explain why transit through Jamaica is necessary or logistical given that the United States has the greatest facilities for air travel.