Jamaica in talks with U.S. to temporarily take in third-country deportees

The island nation’s National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang confirmed the countries have signed a memorandum of understanding.

Jamaica is in talks with the U.S. to potentially accept third-country migrants, as the Donald Trump administration continues to lobby Caribbean islands to take on deportees.

According to the Associated Press, Jamaica’s National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang confirmed this week (June 16) that the island nation signed a memorandum of understanding with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to accept up to 25 third-country migrants deported from the U.S. every two weeks.

According to Chang, migrants sent to Jamaica will not be detained, and their accommodations will be handled by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.

“Jamaica, like other sovereign nations, is obligated under international laws to accept the return of its own citizens,” Chang said in a statement. “However, this new arrangement does not mean third-country nationals are being dumped on our shores. This is a structured, managed process to transit individuals through Jamaica to their final destination,” he added, drawing a hard line between repatriating Jamaican nationals and processing foreign citizens.

The “operational procedures” of the agreement are still being worked out, per The New York Times. Jamaica’s compensation for the deal has also not been finalized.

Jamaica is the latest Caribbean country to have these discussions with the U.S. In January, Dominica inked a deal with the U.S. to accept its asylum seekers after the island of 72,000 citizens was slapped with travel restrictions by Trump. Antigua and Barbuda also made a similar, non-binding agreement “as part of its global efforts to share responsibility for refugees already present in its territory,” according to the Associated Press.

Uganda, Rwanda, El Salvador, and Mexico are among some of the nations that have made arrangements with the U.S. to accept its deportees. El Salvador, in particular, has received attention for booking U.S. deportees into its maximum security prison, the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, which was built to confine gang members. The controversial facility is the largest prison in all of Latin America, and can hold up to 40,000 inmates.

The Trump administration claims that its newest move with Jamaica is another step in “utilizing all lawful options to carry out the largest deportation operation in history, just as President Trump promised,” according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.