Jamaicans Urged to Avoid Scammers and Smugglers

Jamaicans are being urged not to fall prey to scammers and smugglers and enter a country illegally.

“These things are not a bed of roses and the story that these scammers and smugglers sell to individuals in vulnerable communities should not be trusted,” said Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Hon. Kamina Johnson Smith.

The Minister was speaking at a post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, today (May 10).

“There are real consequences in trying to enter the US illegally, or any other country for that matter, and we really encourage Jamaicans to take a second and a third thought before they take that decision,” she said.

Meanwhile, the Minister informed that a young Jamaican man who had been missing in Mexico has now been identified as having died.

She added that he was regrettably an unidentified person found on a street in Mexico.

“The persons who were supposed to have been travelling with him became uncontactable by the family. However, some efforts were made by our Embassy in Mexico to reach out to the Department that is responsible for identification of personnel and of persons, and it was found that the young Jamaican citizen was identified as having had an autopsy performed on him, but not having been a body claimed,” she said.

Senator Johnson Smith further said the Ministry will be working with the family “to see what we can do in terms of the repatriation of the body”.

She said the nation will be updated on a developing matter which involves kidnappings, at a later date.

Meanwhile, the Minister indicated that deportations from Panama have increased significantly, “but the overall deportation figures, I would need to check those”.