Growing unease over the controversial third-country nationals (TCN) agreement between Jamaica and the United States (US) has triggered pushback from trade union leaders, amid fears that the island could become a holding ground for undocumented migrants.

Vincent Morrison, veteran trade unionist and president of the Union of Clerical Administrative and Supervisory Employees (UCASE), has called for the Jamaican Government to withdraw the arrangement, while Techa Clarke-Griffiths, president of the Jamaica Civil Service Association (JCSA), cautioned that the country was ill-prepared to shoulder the spillover of the US's immigration troubles.

“We have enough problems of our own here,” Clarke-Griffiths declared, while speaking last Thursday at an awards ceremony for long-serving civil servants in Manchester.