Some of the 207 Jamaicans who returned to the island today (May 13), get support from members of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF) to load their luggage on to a Jamaica Urban Transit (JUTC) bus at the Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA). They will be taken into quarantine.
#KINGSTON, May 13 (JIS): The Government has facilitated the controlled re-entry of another 207 Jamaicans who were stranded overseas due to the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and closure of the country’s ports.
They landed at the
Norman Manley International Airport (NMIA), today (May 13), under the protocols
established for the re-entry of Jamaicans into the country.
There were three
flights, which consisted of 94 persons from New York, 93 from Florida, and 20
from Toronto. All the persons will be quarantined for 14 days.
The first flight
arrived in the island from the United Kingdom on Wednesday, May 6 with 120
passengers.
Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith, who was at
the airport coordinating the work of the various agencies involved in the
process, and to welcome the passengers, told JISNews that the persons
had faced several challenges while being stranded, and as citizens, the
Constitution guarantees them re-entry into their country.
“Constitutionally,
citizens have a right to come home, and Jamaica has been managing that
Constitutional right, with a public health obligation as well, to ensure the
safety of the Jamaican population. That is why our borders were closed,” the
Minister said.
While underscoring that
the Government had to ensure the return of persons desirous of being home, and
that it is “good to have our people home”, Minister Johnson Smith emphasised that
the process cannot be done in a way that endangers the health of the public.
“It cannot be that our
borders remain closed forever, so we have been trying to implement and manage a
controlled process, to ensure that the right to return is balanced with public health,”
she said.
Meanwhile, Minister
without Portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, Senator the Hon.
Matthew Samuda, who was also at the airport, told JISNews that the new jamcovid website, https://jamcovid19.moh.gov.jm/,
which has been set up to facilitate applications of persons who wish to return
home, has improved.
The Minister said that everything
possible is being done to have persons close to their families.
“These are our people,
and we have to do everything possible to bring them home. It is a very
expensive process, because we have to facilitate quarantining, but we are doing
it as quickly as we can, because they want to come home to their families,” the
Minister said.