ST JAMES, Jamaica — Chairman of the St James Ministers Fraternal, Reverend Glendon Powell, has raised concerns over the Government’s recently signed memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the United States to accept deported foreign nationals under a third-country nationals (TCN) agreement, arguing that the Church and other stakeholders should have been brought into the discussion before the deal was finalised.

Powell, speaking on the issue during a press conference at the Burchell Baptist Church in Montego Bay on Wednesday, said the lack of consultation reflects a wider problem in national leadership where major decisions are often made without enough engagement with critical sectors of society.

“I won’t speak fulsome on it. But I just want to say again, we have leaders in our nation who are not bringing the stakeholders to sit together to flesh things out properly before implementation. And that is a problem,” Powell said.