Advocate for Haitians calls for due process as 35 land in Portland

Kensington, Portland

Founder of Freedom Imaginaries Malene Alleyne is urging the Government to allow what she describes as a basic due-process guarantee to take place wherein Haitian migrants would be screened to determine whether they are asylum seekers.

Alleyne, who spoke with The Gleaner via telephone on Sunday following the landing of 35 Haitians by boat in Kensington, east Portland, argued that once the screening process takes place, which is required by international law, an assessment could be made as to whether they are undergoing persecution and civil unrest.

Alleyne’s comments come in the wake of what she described as the draconian approach on the part of the Government to send back at least three groups of Haitians within a 24-hour period, recently, without giving them the opportunity to apply for asylum.

“Because the Government has adopted such an unlawful and draconian approach towards Haitians, who are asylum seekers, it pushes them to try to enter through these irregular channels,” she said.

In February, 37 Haitians, who are currently housed at a facility in St Mary, had their application for asylum rejected by the Government. The Haitians had arrived in Jamaica by boat last year after claiming that they were fleeing persecution, civil unrest, economic hardships, and gang warfare.

However, in June 2024, the Government announced that it was developing a humanitarian stay option, and according to Alleyne, she is assuming that the Haitians currently housed at a non-custodial facility in St Mary will benefit from that initiative.

Serious security issues

While Alleyne is lobbying for better treatment for the Haitians, who continue to turn up on Jamaica’s shores, illegally, including at least three groups that landed in the eastern end of the parish undetected in the dead of night, she has admitted that such activities raise serious security issues and breaches.

“Any group of persons entering your borders undetected raises a number of security issues, not just Haitians, but anybody, as it is a breach of the system. They (Haitians) are fleeing persecution, and they are trying to live and survive. It is well documented what the human-rights body says about the side effects of governments adopting these unlawful and draconian repressive measures, that it pushes vulnerable asylum seekers to take these very treacherous routes across the sea in these unworthy boats, entering in an irregular way.

“What should happen is that asylum seekers should feel safe entering Jamaica so that they will enter through regular channels and that they will feel sure that when they speak to an immigration official their claim will be assessed fairly, but that is not happening now, “she added.

In the meantime, Alleyne is suggesting that a humanitarian stay option should be implemented, which, according to her, would allow for authorities to grant work permits to Haitians, who she said are very talented and extremely hard working

The 35 Haitians – comprising adult males, adult females, and teenagers – who landed at a beach in Kensington yesterday, underwent screening and medical checkups at the Port Antonio health centre.

It is the fourth set of Haitians to have set foot, illegally, on Jamaica’s shores since 2024, and they come at a time when there have been ongoing heated exchanges between human rights lobbies and the Government over the welfare of Haitians fleeing their ravaged homeland in search of a better life.

editorial@gleanerjm.com