The June 13 Gleaner editorial, Lessons from Cox's Bazar, deserves commendation for elevating a discussion that is too often (cynically) reduced to questions of border control, administrative convenience, by, I dare say, the billionaire-aligned expediency of the current Jamaican State.

The plight of the Rohingya is indeed a stark reminder of the human consequences of statelessness. It is also a timely warning to the Caribbean. As the editorial correctly notes, the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Haiti is already generating migration pressures that are being felt across the region, including in Jamaica.

What impressed me most was the editorial's refusal to embrace a false choice between sovereignty and humanity. A nation has every right to manage its borders and to regulate immigration. Equally, a civilised society has a duty to ensure that vulnerable human beings are treated with dignity, fairness, and due process. These principles are not mutually exclusive; they are complementary.