Behind every worker who leaves Jamaica through the Overseas Employment Programme is a structured Government-led system. At East Street, selected workers are prepared, documented, briefed and coordinated for departure, linking overseas employer demand with Jamaican workers ready to take up opportunities in Canada and the United States.

Before a Jamaican worker boards a flight for an overseas employment opportunity, the East Street Office of the Ministry of Labour and Social Security helps make that movement possible.

As the operational home of Jamaica’s Overseas Employment Programme, East Street prepares selected workers for opportunities under the Canadian Seasonal Agricultural Workers Programme, the United States Farm Work Programme under H-2A, and the United States Hospitality Programme under H-2B.

Its work begins after recruitment and selection, when workers identified as suitable candidates enter the processing stage.

“This department is the processing department. What we do is that we take the workers who have already gone through recruitment and selection,” said Delroy Palmer, Director of the Overseas Employment Programme.

From there, selection begins to look like departure. Workers move through document preparation, visa or work permit requirements, orientation, passport handling, contract briefings, travel arrangements and final coordination.

It is a system with deep roots. Jamaica’s Overseas Employment Programme has operated since the 1950s, with Government remaining at the centre of the country’s formal labour mobility arrangements.

“Jamaica’s model is distinctive because it is Government-run and Government-led,” said Colette Roberts Risden, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Labour and Social Security. “In a global environment where many overseas work opportunities are driven by private recruiters, Jamaica’s programme stands out because the Government remains central to the process, from systems oversight to worker preparation and employer confidence.”

That confidence is also reflected in the number of workers employers ask to have back.

“For Canada, maybe about 85 to 90 per cent of the workers are returning workers,” Palmer said. “They go, they perform, and the employer requests for them to return.”

East Street must therefore manage both experienced workers returning for another season and new participants preparing for their first assignment, often against employer and travel timelines where delays carry consequences.

“When you are managing a programme of this nature, efficiency is not optional,” Risden said. “Every delay affects a worker, an employer, the harvest and getting their crops to the market.Our workers support America’s farmers, and the aim is to make sure that East Street is efficient and delivers on our mandate” 

For workers, what follows may help pay school fees, improve a home, build savings or strengthen a family’s finances. Employers gain access to Jamaican labour through an established system, while Jamaica maintains relationships built over decades.

East Street sits at the intersection of those interests, turning selection into readiness and, ultimately, departure.