At least one local organisation that helps to re-integrate persons deported from the US to Jamaica has raised concerns about the identity crisis that confronts many on being sent to the island.
President of the Family Unification Resettlement Initiative (FURI) Service Centre, Alvin McLean Jnr., noted that the lack of proper identification is a major struggle for some of the deportees. He said some do not have a birth certificate and are completely unprepared for life in Jamaica.
“We would certainly love the government to do more in that area; even provide a temporary identification card. Individuals that come down here, can’t get the money, you can’t get remittances without proper identification and these individuals are going to need immediate remittance from a family member,” said McLean Jnr who noted that on occasions, the deportees would ask for his help in accessing funds sent from family members because they do not have any identification.
There are plans to send at least 25 foreign nationals to Jamaica every two weeks as part of a Third-Country Nationals (TCN) agreement with the US. McLean Jnr said there are concerns regarding the human dignity and the treatment of all migrants, including those who will be sent under this agreement.
“FURI recognizes the sovereign right of the government of Jamaica to enter into international agreements regarding migration management, that is their right to do that, however, any arrangement involving transfer or temporary placement of migrants in Jamaica must be accompanied by adequate safeguards, funding, housing, health care, legal protections and most importantly reintegration services,” he said.
FURI is a non-government organisation that was founded by Carmeta Albarus in 2002 to assist involuntary returned immigrants to the island. Albarus, a forensic social worker working within the criminal justice system in the US, primarily funds the organisation with help from a few donors. FURI is one of two places in the island that provides help for these immigrants.
Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, whose country is currently in talks with the US over the number of deportees it can take under the TCN programme, said his country requires intelligence sharing from U.S. authorities. However, that seems to be a challenge.
“We also said to them, too, that these persons must have travel documents because what happens sometimes is some of these immigrants who they detain as soon as they get to the US tear up the travel documents and we can’t have them come here as stateless individuals,” he disclosed recently.
The US Department of Homeland Security has kept the terms of the TCN agreements largely hidden, as the Trump administration pressures more governments across the region to join its expanding third-country removal network.
Third Country Deportation Watch, created by Human Rights First and Refugees International, estimates that as of May 2026, more than 17,500 people have been sent to countries not their own, and the pace is rapidly accelerating.
The human rights organisations have noted that several Cubans are sent to Mexico for example without paperwork.
“Elderly and infirm Cubans who have lived in the United States for decades have been arrested in Florida and New York, transported to Arizona, and summarily deported to Nogales, Mexico without any identity documents or property whatsoever,” noted Third Country Deportation Watch, which monitors the human cost of the TCN programme.
The organisation highlighted that “Cubans and Venezuelans are often released on the street without immigration documentation, leaving them unable to work legally and vulnerable to exploitation and abuse.”