Last Updated on April 22, 2020, 6:45 AM AST by Anthony Morris
62 Jamaicans had been deported from the United States, and the deportees have been placed in a Government quarantine facility at New Kingston after these deportees arrived in Jamaica on Tuesday.
The Government of Jamaica has given assurance that these deportees would be quarantined before their release.
However, the Government has been facing criticism over the fact that the deportees were being allowed to return to Jamaica when the borders of the country have been closed due to the COVID-19 coronavirus crisis.
The Prime Minister of Jamaica, Andrew Holness announced on Monday that the closure of the country’s borders would continue until May 31.
He added that there would still be controlled re-entry of Jamaican nationals during the period of the closure of the borders.
The Foreign Affairs Minister, Kamina Johnson Smith, said that hundreds of Jamaicans who are crew members on cruise ships abroad are also waiting to come back home.
However, she said that bringing them back was a complicated process as the world is fighting the coronavirus pandemic continuously.
The parliamentary Opposition had requested the Government to pressure the Trump administration to stop the deportations so that the local health system is not overwhelmed as it is dealing with an increase in COVID-19 cases. As of Monday, Jamaica had 223 confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus and also six deaths owing to the virus.
Concerns regarding the deportations had also been raised when the Guatemalan Government had disclosed that several persons who were sent back to that country from the United States had tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
It had also been reported that to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the United States, the Donald Trump administration is pushing forward with an aggressive immigration enforcement agenda, and is deporting thousands of people back to their homeland, and these deportees include some of the people who were being sick with the coronavirus.
Anthony Morris covers stories related to politics and regional developments. His in-depth reporting about governance and reforms makes him stand out in regional journalism, with a deep analysis of political trends and their impact on Caribbean communities.
