Justice Minister says US advisory could damage Jamaica's tourism brand

 

Justice Minister Delroy Chuck has criticised the United States government over its travel advisory encouraging its citizens to stay away from Jamaica due to a rise in violence.

 

Speaking in St. James on the weekend, Minister Chuck admitted that the country's image abroad has been tainted by rampant criminal activity in pockets across the country.

 

Jamaica welcomed more than four million tourists last year.

 

But Mr. Chuck argued that the recent US travel advisory could cause serious damage to the country's tourism brand, especially on the north coast which he said is dependent on tourists for the local economy to grow and to assist in reducing poverty across communities. 

 

"We are now being affected by...the American travel advisory encouraging Americans not to come to Jamaica because Jamaica has too many murders, too much of a violent society. If I might say so, I think that advisory is overdoing it. Those who are visiting Jamaica - Negril, right across the tourist sector - they really, tourists have nothing to worry about," he insisted. 

 

Minister Chuck maintained that the majority of the violent incidents in Jamaica are gang related or domestic incidents.  

 

"I can say to you church and to those who are listening online in the diaspora across the United States, 99% of Jamaica is extremely peaceful at this time. Yes, 1% in pockets of poverty, we have gangs fighting one another and definitely in many homes we have spouses, families being torn apart because they are unable to reconcile their differences." 

 

The Justice Minister disclosed that the Police High Command is investigating an alarming number of murders and shootings stemming from family disputes. 

 

"We have approximately 300 murders within families, domestic abuses, domestic killings, where parents can't get along with their children, children are killing parents, parents are killing children, brothers and sisters fighting and killing one another, families fighting over dead left - 300 approximate murders where the victim and the offender are close family units. This is not how God meant families to grow and develop," he bemoaned.  

 

Mr. Chuck was speaking at the closing of Restorative Justice Week at the West Jamaica Seventh Day Adventist Church in St. James on the weekend.