Jamaica maintains it is not allowing migrants with criminal records into the country.

KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC – Jamaica on Wednesday confirmed that nine of the 22 people sent to the island from the United States under that country’s third-country nationals (TCNs) project have left the island, with Kingston maintaining they were not criminals.

“So when the US says that under TCN agreements criminals are being sent, they are not including Jamaica,” Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister, Kamina Johnson-Smith, told a news conference.

“I just wanted to explain this again for persons who seem to be having difficulty rationalizing the two concepts that the US is saying that criminals are being deported or sent on the TCN agreements and Jamaica is saying we’re not receiving any criminals.

“Our arrangement does not agree to receive any criminals. They are vetted on the US side, and they’re vetted on the Jamaica side before they enter Jamaica. So I wanted to make that clear, and as of today, nine more have departed. The remainder are at different stages of departure as arranged by the International Organization for Migration, in whose care they continue to be,” she told reporters.

A total of 22 third-country nationals arrived at Norman Manley International Airport here on October 13 under the agreement between the two countries.

The group comprised 15 men and seven women from Ecuador and one European country. No children were among the arrivals.

Under the arrangement, Jamaica is expected to receive no more than 25 third-country nationals every two weeks. The program will also be suspended if 10 or more individuals seek to remain in Jamaica through asylum applications or other humanitarian processes.

The individuals have been granted 90-day landing status while arrangements are made for their onward travel.

Johnson Smith said on Tuesday that one person had returned home and 21 others remain in the country. She said one had requested to stay.

“There are countries which have agreed to receive criminals. They exist. When the United States speaks about sending criminals on the TCN agreements, they send them to those countries. Jamaica is not one of them.

“Our country has negotiated arrangements whereby persons with criminal antecedents will not be sent to Jamaica. What do I mean? I mean that, other than having broken United States immigration laws, those who have legally entered the US are not criminals. Those are the persons who are sent to transit Jamaica,” the Foreign Affairs Minister said.