A Senate debate on the Civil Aviation (Amendment) Bill descended into a brief heated clash on Friday after Opposition Senator Lambert Brown accused the Government of agreeing to bring into Jamaica people described by United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “despicable” under the third-country nationals (TCN) arrangement.

The exchange escalated after Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson repeatedly interrupted Brown, switched off his microphone, and sought to have it recorded in Hansard that the Opposition senator was asserting that the Government was bringing to Jamaica “paedophiles, criminals and rapists” under the arrangement.

The confrontation followed Brown’s attempt to draw a parallel between the Government’s swift move to strengthen aviation safety and what he described as its decade-long failure to bring the Occupational Safety and Health (OSHA) Bill to Parliament.