Government rejects link between skilled-worker talks and third-country national deal

The Holness administration is pushing back after reports that former Jamaican ambassador to the United States Audrey Marks discussed a controversial third-country national arrangement with American officials.

The Gleaner reported this week that a diplomatic note from the United States Embassy in Kingston said Marks raised the proposal with a US Department of Homeland Security official at the Americas Counter Cartel Conference at US Southern Command in Miami, Florida, on March 5, 2026.

In an interview with the Jamaica Information Service on Thursday, Information Minister Dr Dana Marks-Dixon said the two issues had been wrongly combined. She said talks involving Marks centred on bringing highly skilled workers to Jamaica, including nurses and doctors from countries such as the Philippines, Ghana and Nigeria, and not on a third-country national pact. Marks-Dixon said officials from both countries later had to clarify that the third-country national framework is separate from any skilled-labour programme under review.

In St Ann, 27-year-old Rodley Thompson of Getty's Town, Free Hills, St Mary, has been charged after a fatal crash in Ocho Rios that killed 65-year-old Claudette Thorpe. Police said that shortly after 6:00 a.m. last Saturday, Thorpe was walking along Main Street near Big Ben Supermarket when Thompson lost control of his vehicle. It swerved across the road, struck her, and then hit a wall and a utility pole. She was taken to hospital and pronounced dead. Thompson faces charges of causing death by dangerous driving, operating a motor vehicle without a driver's licence, and operating without insurance.

In Mandeville, passersby found a man's body this morning along Wind Road, face down in bushes beneath a metal grill on a property between Mandeville Infant School and Brooks Park, around 8:00 a.m. The deceased wore black shorts and a red hoodie. His identity has not been confirmed. Police are investigating, and the circumstances of the death remain unclear.

Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness has reaffirmed plans to make public lands available for lawful acquisition by Jamaicans through a structured, competitive process. He announced the move at a land titling ceremony in Akim Walk and Jackson Town, St Andrew, where 40 residents received certificates of title. Holness said public entities have been directed to identify land that can be released to expand property ownership, noting that possession alone does not guarantee secure tenure. Minister with responsibility for land titling and settlement Robert Montague urged beneficiaries to protect their titles and encouraged other Jamaicans to formalise their land holdings rather than squat on government land.

Agriculture Minister Floyd Green moved to ease concern over tightening onion supplies, saying the shortage reflects the natural end of the local production season. He noted that farmers who earlier complained of oversupply have largely sold their crop, and that external supplies would be used to help stabilise prices until the next season. Green said similar fluctuations affect other crops and that the ministry is working to introduce drying facilities in high-production zones to store and distribute produce more evenly over time.