Jamaica’s refugee policy provides model for other CARICOM states

KINGSTON, Jamaica, Observer — JAMAICA'S top diplomat in the United States, Ambassador Stephen Vasciannie, has pointed out that his island's refugee policy incorporates reference to international human rights standards and provides a good framework for the treatment of asylum seekers. "It also provides a model that could be used in some other Caricom states," Ambassador Vasciannie said in his presentation to an international refugee law course staged by the Committee on Juridical and Political Affairs of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Washington, DC recently. Noting that Jamaica's refugee policy was formulated in 2009, Ambassador Vasciannie said that the Jamaican approach is based expressly on the 1951 Refugees Convention and the 1967 Protocol to the Refugees Convention.