Refugee Matters

Examines Jamaica’s foreign policy with respect to international refugee law, national policy and select contentious issues of compliance and implementation. It discusses the country’s international law obligations as a signatory to the 1951 Refugees Convention and the subsequent 1967 Protocol. This chapter highlights the principle of non-refoulement and critically examines Jamaica’s efforts to implement policy procedures for asylum seekers. In this regard, Chap. 17 highlights some of the shortcomings in Jamaica’s National Refugee Policy especially in relation to lack of access to local courts. This chapter also focuses on some of the controversies and challenges arising from the treatment of Cuban and Haitian asylum-seekers in the 1990s. These cases provide an assessment of Jamaica’s refugee policy and highlight some challenges of compliance with international law. On the other side of international refugee law, cases of Jamaican nationals seeking asylum abroad are discussed. The tendency of other countries to grant refugee status to these requests, primarily on the grounds of persecution based on sexual orientation, have brought negative attention to various Jamaican political administrations.