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Haitians being used for cheap labour
Feature
Mark Cummings and Everard Owen
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Hoping to stem the increasing use of Haitian refugees as cheap labour, government officials have warned that anyone caught employing the asylum seekers will be dragged before the courts.
"We are told that (refugees) sometimes leave the camp to work and we have made it clear to them that they are not allowed to work," said Paul Saunders, the co-ordinator for Haitian activities. He monitors the two Haitian camps in St James and Portland.
"This has always been our position on it from day one, so anybody who does it runs the risk of being prosecuted by the government," Saunders added.
About 300 refugees are housed at Montpelier in St James while another 266 are at the Winifred Rest Home in Fairy Hill, Portland.
"Any foreign national that seeks to work in Jamaica requires a work permit and (the Haitians) are asylum seekers so they are not eligible for employment in Jamaica," said Gilbert Scott, the permanent secretary in the National Security Ministry.
He maintained that it was up to the police to enforce the law by prosecuting those who illegally hire the refugees.
The crime chief for Area One, Superintendent John Morris, said several cases were now being investigated in St James.
"We have heard about some cases and they will be investigated, and if we find the evidence then those persons employing them will be prosecuted," he said.
Workers at a popular car wash, located on the outskirts of Montego Bay, told the Sunday Observer that up to a week ago two Haitian refugees had worked there, and had been paid based on the number of vehicles they washed.
"If a car cost $300 to wash, the boss would give them $100 out of that," one worker said, adding that the Haitians were very hard workers.
Section three of the Foreign National and Commonwealth Citizens Employment Act of 1964 prohibits foreign nationals from seeking employment without a work permit.
Those who break the law, as well as anyone who hires them, can be fined $200 and/or imprisoned for up to six months. The penalty is apparently not strong enough to deter the refugees or those who use their services.
Nearly two months ago, Othnel Brezeu, a 32 year-old Haitian who was living at the Montpelier camp, was shot and killed in Shettlewood, Hanover, at a garage where he was said to be employed. The man who owned the garage, 44 year-old Blondel Richards, was also killed during the attack.
In Portland, refugees said many of them earn between $600 and $1,000 a day by doing odd jobs that many locals refuse to do or would demand more compensation to complete.
According to Sunday Observer sources, some returning residents in the area hire the asylum seekers to cut their yards and do other forms of manual labour. The Haitians sneak out of the camp in the mornings and try to get back before 5:00 pm, the source said.
"They have been seeking employment in the community and the main reason is, they claim, they are not given sufficient meals," said one community member who has hired some of the refugees in the past. "And they work to get items that are needed for household and personal use - like tissue, soap and toothpaste - so they seek employment in the area."
Government officials have, in the past, dismissed reports that the Haitians do not have enough to eat, a claim supported by at least one of those at Montpelier who has left the camp to find work.
They had no problem with the amount of food they got at the camp, the refugee said, but needed to do odd jobs to supplement the help they got from the government.
"Some of us leave the camp and get jobs to cut down bush, to do masonry work while others work in the markets," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Most of us want to look nice and smell good so we spend most of the money on clothes and perfumes," he said, sporting a broad smile.
While the going rate to cut the grass in a small yard is at least $1,000, he said he had made $700 by cutting grass near the camp one day. Since then, however, he has not been able to pick up another job.
More than 500 Haitians came to Jamaica in rickety boats in an exodus that followed the violence, last February, that led to the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Last year, 270 refugees who applied for permanent stay in the island were denied refugee status.
At the time, the Ministry of National Security said the applicants had not met the criteria for refugee status, as outlined in the United Nations Convention of 1951.
While some opted to return home, more than 150 had appealed their cases to a government-appointed tribunal.
The tribunal, Scott said, was still reviewing the applications.
But even as their applications are being reviewed, Mark Joseph, a refugee at the $35-million housing facility at Montpelier, is urging the government to speed up the processing of their appeals, so they can become productive members of the society.
"We would like the Jamaican government to speed up the processing of the documents because many us here want to work to buy little things," he said.
Haitians being used for cheap labour
Feature
Mark Cummings and Everard Owen
Sunday, April 24, 2005
Hoping to stem the increasing use of Haitian refugees as cheap labour, government officials have warned that anyone caught employing the asylum seekers will be dragged before the courts.
"We are told that (refugees) sometimes leave the camp to work and we have made it clear to them that they are not allowed to work," said Paul Saunders, the co-ordinator for Haitian activities. He monitors the two Haitian camps in St James and Portland.
"This has always been our position on it from day one, so anybody who does it runs the risk of being prosecuted by the government," Saunders added.
About 300 refugees are housed at Montpelier in St James while another 266 are at the Winifred Rest Home in Fairy Hill, Portland.
"Any foreign national that seeks to work in Jamaica requires a work permit and (the Haitians) are asylum seekers so they are not eligible for employment in Jamaica," said Gilbert Scott, the permanent secretary in the National Security Ministry.
He maintained that it was up to the police to enforce the law by prosecuting those who illegally hire the refugees.
The crime chief for Area One, Superintendent John Morris, said several cases were now being investigated in St James.
"We have heard about some cases and they will be investigated, and if we find the evidence then those persons employing them will be prosecuted," he said.
Workers at a popular car wash, located on the outskirts of Montego Bay, told the Sunday Observer that up to a week ago two Haitian refugees had worked there, and had been paid based on the number of vehicles they washed.
"If a car cost $300 to wash, the boss would give them $100 out of that," one worker said, adding that the Haitians were very hard workers.
Section three of the Foreign National and Commonwealth Citizens Employment Act of 1964 prohibits foreign nationals from seeking employment without a work permit.
Those who break the law, as well as anyone who hires them, can be fined $200 and/or imprisoned for up to six months. The penalty is apparently not strong enough to deter the refugees or those who use their services.
Nearly two months ago, Othnel Brezeu, a 32 year-old Haitian who was living at the Montpelier camp, was shot and killed in Shettlewood, Hanover, at a garage where he was said to be employed. The man who owned the garage, 44 year-old Blondel Richards, was also killed during the attack.
In Portland, refugees said many of them earn between $600 and $1,000 a day by doing odd jobs that many locals refuse to do or would demand more compensation to complete.
According to Sunday Observer sources, some returning residents in the area hire the asylum seekers to cut their yards and do other forms of manual labour. The Haitians sneak out of the camp in the mornings and try to get back before 5:00 pm, the source said.
"They have been seeking employment in the community and the main reason is, they claim, they are not given sufficient meals," said one community member who has hired some of the refugees in the past. "And they work to get items that are needed for household and personal use - like tissue, soap and toothpaste - so they seek employment in the area."
Government officials have, in the past, dismissed reports that the Haitians do not have enough to eat, a claim supported by at least one of those at Montpelier who has left the camp to find work.
They had no problem with the amount of food they got at the camp, the refugee said, but needed to do odd jobs to supplement the help they got from the government.
"Some of us leave the camp and get jobs to cut down bush, to do masonry work while others work in the markets," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"Most of us want to look nice and smell good so we spend most of the money on clothes and perfumes," he said, sporting a broad smile.
While the going rate to cut the grass in a small yard is at least $1,000, he said he had made $700 by cutting grass near the camp one day. Since then, however, he has not been able to pick up another job.
More than 500 Haitians came to Jamaica in rickety boats in an exodus that followed the violence, last February, that led to the overthrow of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Last year, 270 refugees who applied for permanent stay in the island were denied refugee status.
At the time, the Ministry of National Security said the applicants had not met the criteria for refugee status, as outlined in the United Nations Convention of 1951.
While some opted to return home, more than 150 had appealed their cases to a government-appointed tribunal.
The tribunal, Scott said, was still reviewing the applications.
But even as their applications are being reviewed, Mark Joseph, a refugee at the $35-million housing facility at Montpelier, is urging the government to speed up the processing of their appeals, so they can become productive members of the society.
"We would like the Jamaican government to speed up the processing of the documents because many us here want to work to buy little things," he said.
Haitians being used for cheap labour
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