Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness says no one is seeking to "dump" undesirable persons on Jamaica as part of a controversial deportation deal with the United States, and public panic surrounding the pact is almost "ridiculous".

"I find it, the panic around it, it’s almost to the point of being ridiculous, honestly," Holness on Nationwide Radio with Cliff Hughes on Monday. "I see people WhatsApping me and sending me messages, ‘why would we do this to our country?’ I say, ‘please sit and think carefully about what you're saying’. We're not doing anything that 28 other countries, including within this region, have done."

Holness pushed back against the wave of criticism that has engulfed his administration since The Gleaner revealed last Tuesday, the existence of an arrangement for Jamaica to temporary accept third-country nationals (TCNs) from the US in batches of 25 on a fortnightly basis.