The announcement comes as a prominent Jamaican academic called on the United Kingdom to pay slavery reparations Monday, ahead of Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to the island nation.
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Downing Street insisted the new agreement – which will allow the transfer of prisoners who have received sentences of four years or more and who have 18 months or more left to serve – will see more than 300 inmates returning to Jamaica once the prison opens in 2020.
Professor Verene Shepherd, chair of the National Commission on Reparation, told the Jamaica Gleaner that nothing short of an unambiguous apology from Cameron would do.
“We ask not for handouts or any such acts of indecent submission”, he said.
“I speak, Sir, of the legacies of slavery that continue to derail, undermine and haunt our best efforts at sustainable economic development and the psychological and cultural rehabilitation of our people from the ravishes of the crimes against humanity committed by your British State and its citizens in the form of chattel slavery and native genocide”, he went on to say. The same year, 14 Caribbean nations sued Britain, Holland, and France demanding reparations for slavery, and the worldwide Criminal Court is expected to hear the cases at an undetermined date.
“Our relationship should be based on the countries we are today and the opportunities we can generate together, rather than over-relying on the historical ties of the past. It would commit to fix the damage and it would also commit to non-repetition”.
It is also important for us to understand as a people that global trade, foreign aid, and worldwide cooperation in no way equates to reparations. But she emphasized that the discussion need not be confrontational.
Meanwhile, the prime minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, will arrive in the island tomorrow as part of an official visit to Jamaica and as a special guest of the Government of Jamaica.
While in Jamaica, Cameron will be involved in several official activities, including a floral tribute in honour of soldiers of World Wars I and II; bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller; a reception with representatives of the Jamaican government, business community and civil society; and an address to a joint sitting of the Houses of Parliament.
The British government has rejected the call for reparations, saying it does not believe it is the “right approach” to the issue.
But a spokesman for Number 10 said the Prime Minister would not apologise – and wanted to “focus on the future”. A British official told “The Guardian” they don’t want to think about the past.
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He added: “We are talking about issues that are centuries old and taken under a different government when he was not even born”.
