Monique Hepburn, News Editor
Haitians board a plane after being processed by immigration officials at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay on August 16. Seventy-three Haitains were repatriated to their homeland on that occasion. - FILE
WESTERN BUREAU:
OFFICIALS AT the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade are still awaiting a landing permit from Haiti in order to repatriate the more than 100 Haitians, who were denied entry to their homeland on the weekend.
The Air Jamaica flight, which never left Jamaica, was denied landing rights due to the absence of the Haitian Interior Minister, who is expected to return to the country later this week.
The Haitians were subsequently transferred to the Horizon Remand Centre in Kingston.
"We want to clear up speculations about the flight going to Haiti and then having to turn back to Jamaica," Wilton Dyer, public relations officer in the Foreign Affairs Ministry, told The Gleaner yesterday.
"The flight did not leave Jamaica and it is not a matter of the Haitian authorities snubbing Jamaica, but the Interior Minister was not in the country," Mr. Dyer said.
He said joint discussions were being held at the ministry level to expedite the repatriation process, which resulted from an administrative hiccup in Haiti.
MIGRANTS
"The Interior Minister has responsibility to receive migrants but was not present, so there is not an issue of permit being denied," Mr. Dyer noted.
Donovan Nelson, spokesman at the Ministry of National Security, which has responsibility for the Haitians as undocumented persons, told The Gleaner they were awaiting clearance, and that the Haitians will remain in the island until it was granted by Haitian authorities.
