Wrongfully deported to Africa? Jamaica says it didn’t turn anyone away

Jamaica’s government has expressed surprise that the Trump administration has deported one of its nationals to Eswatini or the former Swaziland, saying that Jamaican authorities have not refused to accept any person being deported back to the island over the decades.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Kamina Johnson Smith said in a statement early Friday that the Andrew Holness administration has begun to make formal inquiries to determine the accuracy of reports that a Jamaican national is among five people sent to the African nation by the Homeland Security Department this week.

The department had described the group as ”so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back,” an assertion the Jamaican government is refuting. The others are from Vietnam, Yemen, Laos, and Cuba. The department also noted that they “have been terrorizing American communities” but are“ off of American soil.”

“The government has not refused the return of any of our nationals to Jamaica, and accordingly, if the reports are confirmed, will continue its engagements with the US on the arrangements necessary to facilitate the individual’s return to Jamaica. We will keep the public updated as soon as further verified information is obtained. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade is aware of reports in the public domain of the transfer of individuals, purportedly including a Jamaican national, to Eswatini. The ministry has initiated enquiries with the US authorities to ascertain the veracity of the reported inclusion of a Jamaican in the transfer,” the minister said.

Those deported are reportedly being held in solitary confinement, and department officials have refused to identify the prison facility where they are being held under the so-called third-country deportation policy of the Trump administration.

Almost all of the Caribbean Community countries have a policy of accepting nationals being sent back home, even as the US government has put out feelers about possibly accepting third-country deportees.