Decomposed body found in Santa Cruz as Haitians detained in Portland and deportation deal faces fresh opposition

Police in St. Elizabeth are investigating the discovery of a badly decomposed body in bushes along Coke Drive in Santa Cruz on Sunday morning. Early reports indicate that farmers came upon the remains around 9:00 a.m. and notified the authorities. Detectives noted the advanced state of decomposition and believe the victim was male.

The find marks the third such incident in the parish in just over a week. Last Thursday, residents located a torso in Aberdine in northern St. Elizabeth. On June 11, the body of missing pharmacy technician Kadisa Mloud, 40, was recovered from a cul-de-sac at a pepper farm, also in the parish.

In Portland, more than a dozen Haitians were taken into custody on Sunday after reportedly coming ashore along the parish's northern coastline shortly after midnight. Police sources said the group included ten adult males, four adult females, and two children. They are being held at the Port Antonio Police Station for screening and medical checks.

Residents alerted police to suspicious activity after seeing individuals disembarking from a boat on a beach in western Portland. The vessel is believed to have made landfall undetected, and investigators are checking whether others may have left the area before officers arrived. The landing adds to a pattern of Haitian migration attempts along Jamaica's northern and eastern coast amid worsening conditions in Haiti.

The PNP Women's Movement on Monday demanded that the government explain Jamaica's participation in a controversial deportation arrangement with the United States. The group pointed to remarks by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who in an April 30, 2025 interview described individuals the US sought to remove as among the most despicable human beings. Rubio said Wednesday at a White House cabinet meeting: "I say this unapologetically. We are actively searching for other countries to take people from third countries. So we are active not just El Salvador. We are working with other countries to say we want to send you some of the most despicable human beings to your countries."

National Security Minister Dr. Horace Chang has said the Jamaican arrangement for third-country nationals excludes persons with convictions and other antecedents. The movement said if that is how the United States views those it seeks to remove, the government must justify why Jamaica would accept them, and posed nine questions on the issue.

Trade union leaders have added their voices. Vincent Morrison, president of the Union of Clerical, Administrative and Supervisory Employees, called for the deal to be withdrawn, saying conflicting ministerial statements showed something was fundamentally wrong. "When you hear the different statements coming out from the different government officials, it's quite apparent that something is wrong somewhere," Morrison said. "It's a bad agreement and you can't force a bad agreement on the people."

Tesha Clark-Griffiths, president of the Jamaica Civil Service Association, warned last Thursday in Manchester that Jamaica was ill-equipped to absorb the consequences of America's immigration difficulties. "We have enough problems of our own here," she said, adding, "we may retire with some persons that we don't want to retire with that will be overnighting in Jamaica in the near future. We don't want it. We don't want it."

Chang confirmed last week that the agreement had been signed and that the United States would deport 25 third-country nationals to Jamaica on a fortnightly basis. He said the individuals would transit through the country or may seek asylum, and that deportations would pause if the number exceeded ten within a 30-day window. A diplomatic note from the US Embassy in Kingston identified cabinet minister Arj Mars as the official who proposed the deal. Information Minister Dr. Dana Morris Dixon said the note mischaracterised the matter, stating Mars had proposed a skilled-work arrangement rather than the third-country nationals mechanism now drawing public controversy. Morrison rejected that distinction, arguing wage conditions would give skilled workers little incentive to relocate to Jamaica.

In downtown Kingston on Sunday, police arrested a man and seized an illegal firearm during an operation linked to a reported robbery at the intersection of Orange Street and Barry Street around 6:25 a.m. Officers assigned to the Kingston Central Operation Support Team said they saw the man trying to dispose of a yellow bucket and flee. A search of the bucket reportedly uncovered a Browning 9mm pistol, along with items believed stolen, including a cellular phone. The suspect remains in custody pending further investigations.