Ten of the 22 people who arrived in Jamaica under the Third Country Nationals arrangement have now left the island, and one person has asked to remain.

Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Kamina Johnson Smith gave the update on October 31, according to CANA News. Discussions continue with the others about their process for departure, according to CANA News.

The group arrived at Norman Manley International Airport on October 13 under a memorandum of understanding between Jamaica and the United States, according to CANA News.

How the arrangement is supposed to work

The arrangement is a transit programme, not a settlement programme. People are received in Jamaica temporarily before return to their countries of origin, with the International Organisation for Migration formally engaged to assist them while they are in Jamaica and to facilitate their onward movement, according to CANA News.

Arrivals are capped at no more than 25 people per fortnight, according to CANA News. The individuals were granted 90 day landing status while onward travel is arranged, according to CANA News reporting on October 28.

The memorandum also provides for suspension of the arrangement if 10 people apply to remain in Jamaica through asylum applications or other humanitarian processes, according to CANA News. One request to stay does not reach that line, but it is the number to watch.

The vetting line Jamaica keeps repeating

Minister Johnson Smith has repeated the same safeguard at every update: no person with criminal antecedents is permitted to transit through Jamaica under the programme, and the nationals are vetted by both the United States and Jamaica before they enter the island, according to CANA News.

On October 28, she made the point directly after a United States Department of Homeland Security publication described serious offenders removed to third countries under other arrangements. “So when the US says that under TCN agreements criminals are being sent they are not including Jamaica,” she told a news conference, according to CANA News.

National Security Minister Dr Horace Chang gave the same assurance this week, insisting the vetting was done before the group was accepted, according to the Jamaica Inquirer.

What happens next

As at October 28, nine of the 22 had departed, according to CANA News. The October 31 update moves that number to ten, with one request to remain under discussion and the rest at different stages of departure, according to CANA News.

The full text of the memorandum has not been published. Minister Johnson Smith has said the United States has not agreed to its release, according to reporting on the arrangement, and the opposition has called for the agreement to be tabled in Parliament.

What is confirmed is the movement: arrivals capped, vetting stated on the record by two ministers, departures under way, and one case that will test how the request to stay is handled.

Photo credit: Norman Manley International Airport, via the Jamaica Information Service.