Gov’t now arranging return of heartbroken Jamaican ship workers

Damion Mitchell, Integration Editor

Jamaica’s Foreign Affair Minister Kamina Johnson Smith has written to the attorney representing several Jamaican ship workers aboard the Marella Discovery 2 telling her that the government is actively trying to arrange their return from England.

Amid a ban on incoming passenger traffic, the 43 Jamaican workers on the ship were not granted landing when they docked south of Port Royal in Kingston from April 2-3.

The captain, after waiting for more than 24 hours without word from the Government, left for the Dominican Republic where its nationals disembarked then headed to Portugal but was denied landing there.

IN PHOTO: Prime Minister Andrew Holness

At a virtual press conference at Jamaica House Monday afternoon, Prime Minister Andrew Holness said no date for the eventual return of the Jamaicans could yet be announced.

However, the Prime Minister said the ship workers would be tested for COVID-19 on their return and would also be placed in state quarantine.

Holness did not say whether they would have to contribute to the bills for the hotels in which they would be quarantined unlike he did two weeks ago when he announced the impending controlled re-entry of Jamaicans from overseas.

In the meantime, in her letter to ship workers' attorney, Jennifer Housen, the foreign affairs minister said on April 14, the Jamaican High Commission in London was advised, that the Marella Discovery 2 was heading there for docking.

Johnson Smith told the attorney that the mission through the Jamaica Tourist Board and the and the UK office has been in contact with the Marella operators, TUI Group, regarding the 43 Jamaicans.

IN PHOTO: Foreign Affairs Minister Kamina Johnson Smith

According to the minister, the Government has sought and received the relevant passport, visa and other information about the 43 ship workers and 50 Jamaicans now docked in Southampton.

“The High Commission has assured TUI that the Government of Jamaica has been giving priority attention to the matter of its nationals and will communicate soonest on any action to be taken,” Johnson Smith wrote in the letter to Housen, a copy of which has been obtained by The Gleaner.

The Government has been under increasing pressure since it was reported that the heartbroken ship workers were denied landing.

The criticisms intensified after the national security and foreign affairs ministries released as joint statement saying there could be no guarantee that the Jamaicans would have been granted landing.

However, a day later, the prime minister said when he learned about the Jamaican ship workers, he instantly said they should be allowed in, but by then the ship had left.

In the joint statement, the ministries insisted that in seeking exemption, due protocol had to be followed, which included the temperature log for the people on board.

At the press conference on Monday, Johnson Smith could not immediately say whether the temperature data was received and how it was handled.

However, she said that information could be researched.

In the meantime, the 43 Jamaican ship workers remain in port in Southampton aboard the Marella Discovery 2.

With worldwide cruises halted, the contracts of many of them have ended, but a few continue to work on the vessel.

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