Jamaican gov't says it hasn't refused the return of any citizen from the US

The Jamaican government is denying a statement by the US Department of Homeland Security that suggested it refused to accept the return of a Jamaican man who is among five foreign nationals described by the United States as “barbaric” criminals who have been sent to the small African nation of Eswatini.

In a late-night post on X on Tuesday, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, said the men sent to Eswatini, who are citizens of Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen and Laos, had arrived on a plane, but didn’t say when or where.

In her post, she said the Jamaican man was convicted of murder, sentenced to 25 years confinement; convicted of robbery, sentenced to six years confinement; and convicted of possession of a weapon, sentenced to six months confinement.

She said the five are all convicted criminals and “individuals so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.”

But in a post on X on Wednesday night, Jamaica's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Kamina Johnson Smith, said "the Government has not refused the return of any of our nationals to Jamaica".

She said her ministry was aware of reports in the public domain of the transfer of individuals, purportedly including a Jamaican national, to Eswatini.

She said the Ministry has initiated enquiries with the US authorities to ascertain the veracity of the reported inclusion of a Jamaican in the transfer.

Johnson Smith said if the reports are confirmed, the Government will continue its engagements with the US on the arrangements necessary to facilitate the individual's return to Jamaica.

She committed to keeping the public updated as soon as further verified information is obtained.

The men were reportedly sent to the small African nation of Eswatini in an expansion of the Trump administration’s largely secretive third-country deportation programme.

The US has already deported eight men to another African country, South Sudan, after the Supreme Court lifted restrictions on sending people to countries where they have no ties.

The South Sudanese government has declined to say where those men, also described as violent criminals, are after it took custody of them nearly two weeks ago.

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