‘I came to Jamaica by boat’

WESTERN BUREAU:

Nineteen years ago, a desperate Elivienne Morquette and dozens of other Haitians boarded a rickety canoe and set sail on the perilous Caribbean Sea, propelled by waves of hope in their hearts as they fled a country racked by economic and political turmoil.

It is a journey she does not regret.

Flashbacks of that trip came back last week as the 42-year-old now-naturalised Jamaican learned of the arrival of 37 Haitians in Boston, Portland, after completing a similar voyage.

“I came here by boat and it was a hard journey,” Morquette reflected in an interview with The Sunday Gleaner last Friday.

“I came at Port Antonio first, spent about two weeks in Portland, and then I came to the Montpelier camp. I remember it was three buses that came [for] us, and it was nuff people who came, and when mi go over to the camp, we did live like brothers and sisters.”

That camp was established at the site of a former army camp in Montpelier, St James, after a massive influx of Haitians in 2004.

Morquette, who has now settled in the district, said Montpelier embraced her and other Haitian natives as they sought to rebuild their lives and chart a course to a brighter future.

“Everybody here knows me. We are like brothers and sisters, and if anybody comes and asks for me, people will say, ‘Oh, she lives up there.’ For me, Jamaica and Haiti are two different things because the politics mashed up the country over there,” Morquette reflected painfully.

Like other Haitian natives who spoke with The Sunday Gleaner, she is dismayed at their homeland’s violent status and sociopolitical instability.

The latest 37 Haitians, including eight children, who landed in Portland last Monday and who speak very little English, claimed to have left Jeremie in their homeland in the dead of night on June 26 with Miami, Florida, their intended destination. They are said to be in good health following medical checks by local officials. They are now being housed at an undisclosed facility in St Mary with their immediate needs being met by the relevant arms of the Jamaican State.

Haiti, which has been pummelled by a series of natural disasters as well as social and political instability over decades, saw its latest crisis enter full throttle with the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse in July 2021.

The terms of the country’s last 10 senators expired in January this year, leaving the French-speaking CARICOM country without a single elected government official. General elections are planned for 2023, although a date has not been set.

It is a tough situation for Acting Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who is overseeing a country going through its worst famine ever, with some five million people facing acute hunger. Fuel shortages, cholera, and crippling gang violence have also brought the country to its knees amid economic collapse.

The arrival of 37 Haitians last week rehashed memories of the voyages many had made previously, including what was probably the most notable wave of migrants arriving in 2004. More than 300 Haitians arrived as they tried to escape fighting among persons loyal to ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and rebel forces.

Jamaica is a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees notes that although the country does not have any laws for the protection of refugees or the granting of asylum under the international refugee instruments, it adopted a refugee policy in 2009.

A small number of the more than 300 Haitians arriving in 2004 were granted 1951 Convention status and permission to remain in Jamaica indefinitely as a result of individual eligibility determinations. Most of them were repatriated by the Government in June 2005.

There was widespread outcry when the P.J. Patterson-led Government announced that some 281 of them had been denied refugee status and would be repatriated. As Tropical Storm Jeanne ravaged Haiti and killed more than 2,000 people in October, the move was delayed and the Haitians housed at the former army base in Montpelier.

SCREEN FOR CRIMINALS, GOV’T ADVISED

There are just over 20 Haitians living in Montpelier today. A few have settled in Mount Carey, Bickersteth and surrounding districts. They have entrenched themselves in local community life, some finding employment in the St James capital, Montego Bay, and the neighbouring Hanover.

“They get along with people quite well, but some people still have some reservations about them because of the ‘guns for drugs’ trade and all that,” local shopkeeper Errol told The Sunday Gleaner last week.

Fifty-four-year-old Lemo Luver, a popular soup and yam vendor who plies his trade in Montego Bay and who first came to Jamaica in 1991, has returned to Haiti only three times in the three decades.

“I am a citizen of Jamaica, but I am still Haitian, and anywhere I go, I am Haitian. My country is number one for me, but sometimes I am ashamed to say I come from Haiti. Every year, mi woulda glad fi go home to my country, but with what a gwaan now, mi can’t go,” Luver admitted. “I tell my children about my country, but I don’t like what a gwaan there now; I don’t feel good about it.”

Luver, who met his Jamaican wife in 1995 while they were employed at a garment factory in Montego Bay and who has since sired three children and has five grandchildren, suggested that the Government adopt a cautious approach to avoid criminals slipping through Jamaica’s security screening process.

“If they can help them, they should try to help them, because is ‘bad man’ run Haiti now. The Government can give them a chance fi get to stay and let them help themselves, because when I came, I had nothing, and I did no foolish things. I worked hard and I pushed hard to be where I am now,” he told The Sunday Gleaner. “The ones that are here already, if they can help them, help them, but no more than that. If more come, it’s going to be a problem, because good man a come and bad man a come.”

The concern is not without merit, given that two key suspects in the plot to assassinate Moïse were found to have entered the island illegally.

Former senator John Joel Joseph was found holed up in a deep-rural St Elizabeth district with his wife and two sons in January 2022. Their applications for asylum were denied. The ex-senator was extradited to the United States and his wife and sons were sent back to Haiti.

Former Colombian armyman Mario Antonio Palacios was arrested in St Mary for illegal entry in October 2021 and as later linked to the Moïse murder plot. Palacios was arrested by the US en route to Colombia after being deported from Jamaica.

CALL FOR EASIER, SAFER ROUTES TO JAMAICA

Despite Haiti being a CARICOM state, its nationals need a visa to enter Jamaica. In mid-2018, the Cabinet approved a protocol that removed visa requirements for Haitians travelling to Jamaica for bona fide business purposes and who are holders of a valid visa issued by Canada, the United Kingdom, the United States, or a state of the Schengen area.

Jamaica suspended consular services in Haiti last month after gangsters attacked and set ablaze sections of a compound housing the Jamaican consulate.

Morquette believes that in light of the crisis gripping her homeland, Jamaica should make it easier for Haitians to enter the island as many have to resort to the risky sea voyage.

“I want Jamaica to [re]open a sort of embassy to make the Haitians come in by flight because the sea business is not okay. When you open it, everybody can apply for a visa to come and visit, and when you want to go home you can go home, but the little boats mi see dem a come on, you risk your life with them, because anything can happen. Just give them permission, a letter to get a visa to come here because right now, it is not fair for them,” she told The Sunday Gleaner.

For 54-year-old Viviane Joseph, who also arrived from Haiti in 2004 and now operates a shop in Montpelier, that environment is not one she wishes to return to.

“I got asylum to stay here, and after I had just come here to Jamaica, I was free. I do not want to go back because Haiti mash up,” Joseph said resolutely. “When people are good some place, you do not want to move from there.”

Osnel Cherie, a 60-year-old woodworker, who has established a home for himself in Montpelier, since his 2004 arrival, is also embracing the freedom he believes he would not have had in his homeland.

“Since I came to Jamaica, I have been comfortable. I could not speak the language when I came here, but I got used to this country, and I had spent three years at the Montpelier camp,” he said. “If I built my house in Haiti, the ‘bad men’ would take it and kill me, but since I came here, I worked and built my house.”

Cherie also dismissed a previous suggestion by Prime Minister Andrew Holness in January this year that Jamaica would be willing to participate in a multinational security initiative to restore order to Haiti.

“Mi nuh like the idea to send soldier and police over there because over there the man dem too bad, so mi nuh want none a dem [Jamaican security forces] go get hurt and cast blame on we in Jamaica. Dem would say, ‘You a Haitian, we go send soldier and police and dem kill dem, so who here now, dem gonna take revenge.’ Mek dem fight fi dem own self over there,” said Cherie.

Meanwhile, Homer Davis, member of parliament of St James Southern and state minister in the Office of the Prime Minister – West, said it is unlikely that the former Montpelier refugee facility, which was originally built in the 1970s as an agricultural school, would be available for use if more Haitian refugees were sent to western Jamaica. The facility was converted into Anchovy High School’s Fidel Castro Campus nearly a decade ago.

“The site that they were at first, the old Cuban school, it is now the Anchovy High School’s second campus so I doubt if it would be able to accommodate anyone. The matter is being handled by the Ministry of National Security and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so I don’t know what will be the process going forward. To the best of my knowledge, that compound is fully occupied by the Ministry of Education, and by extension the Anchovy High School,” said Davis.

christopher.thomas@gleanerjm.com