The ‘goodness’ of a country, arguably, hinges on the way it treats its most vulnerable citizens. And in 1999, Jamaica wasn’t very good after it rounded up street people in the nation’s tourist capital by the droves in a bid to make Montego Bay more attractive for tourist arrivals. The move backfired and gave the government a black eye it can never seem to completely remove. The stain of shame should remain as a reminder never to allow expedience to replace care and concern for those we govern

Published July 15, 2021

Never again!

On anniversary’s eve, Gov’t vows to prevent repeat of street people scandal

Andre Williams/Staff Reporter 

THE ABDUCTION of dozens of street people by government workers in 1999 remains a stain on the collective conscience of Montego Bay, a former mayor of the resort city has said.

On the eve of today ’s commemoration of the 22nd anniversary of the human-rights violation, State Minister Homer Davis has described the rounding up of the homeless as “one of the darkest days” in the Second City in the post-slavery era.

Davis, who is the deputy in the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, which has responsibility for the homeless, said his blood runs cold at the mere mention of the street people scandal.

“I knew some of those people, and, you know, the persons who were involved with that, some of them are not here with us and some of them are still here,” Davis told The Gleaner during a tour of the Lawrence Tavern division in St Andrew on Wednesday.

Davis said he has seen receipts for the rope that was bought to tie up the homeless.

More than 30 persons were abducted from the streets of Montego Bay in a predawn operation on July 15, 1999, and transported to St Elizabeth, where they were abandoned near a bauxite mud lake.

The police force and the St James Parish Council were implicated i n the night-time sweep.

The Government accepted liability and was ordered to pay the victims a $20,000 monthly stipend as part of a compensation package.

The incident sparked international outrage and a commission of enquiry, but no one was found criminally responsible.

In veiled criticism of t he Patterson administration at the time, Davis vowed that history would not be repeated under the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, which he credits with building more infirmaries and drop-in centres for the homeless than any other government.

The state minister said that Local Government Minister Desmond McKenzie was committed to providing well-constructed buildings – “not some little cotch-up thing”.

A new ward valued at $45 million is being constructed at the St James Infirmary to accommodate 45 male residents.

“These things can’t happen, and not when this ministry is being led by Minister McKenzie who has a passion, and I share that passion for the poor people of this country. It can’t happen.

“Taking people and tying them up in trucks and carrying them to a red mud lake to dump them in St Elizabeth. It was dark day for my city – dark, dark day,” Davis told The Gleaner.

CITY’S BLACK EYE

In a press statement issued late Wednesday, Montego Bay Mayor Leeroy Williams said that the city received a “black eye”22 years ago but sought to give the assurance that attempts were being made to assist the vulnerable.

“Street people now have access to the City Spirit Foundation Care Centre on Orange Street, the night shelter at Albion, and from time to time, the Poor Relief Department coordinates medical support for them,” Williams said.

Lawrence Tavern is one of five communities selected under a $650-million Rural Development Programme announced earlier this year.

The initiative is aimed at improving the lives and economic well-being of rural communities over the next two years.

Davis told stakeholders on Wednesday that the homeless and indigent must not be left behind even as rural townships are rehabilitated.

“We don’t want to fix up the town and the man and the woman still living on the street. It wouldn’t be a good reflection on us as leaders because I have always said we are all in good shape now, but the future is sometimes very unpredictable, and you never know what may befall some of us or people that we know,” the state minister said.

Audit vessels operating in Jamaica

Jamaica Gleaner

15 Jul 2021

MAYBE BECAUSE its entire crew was Honduran, the disappearance last week of the fishing vessel, Fallen Star, appears to have evoked little emotion among Jamaicans.

Yet, the loss of the vessel’s 15 hands, if, indeed, there are no survivors, would represent, perhaps, the island’s worst seafaring incident in nearly 60 years, since the Snowboy tragedy of 1963. Forty men, 39 Jamaicans and their Australian captain, went down with Snowboy in the seas in the vicinity of the Pedro Banks, a series of Jamaican-owned cays off the island’s southwest coast.

While this newspaper does not suggest that the Fallen Star was in full compliance with Jamaican and global safety protocols for vessels of its class, its disappearance must be thoroughly and transparently investigated – as would be expected in any such incident – by the Maritime Authority of Jamaica (MAJ), which has oversight for such matters. Further, the MAJ should conduct a safety and compliance audit of all vessels operating in Jamaica’s waters, to assure the public that they meet regulatory standards.

This is not a new suggestion by The Gleaner. It is an echo of the call we made on the first day of 2019, following the Christmastime tragedy when two women drowned on their way to an excursion at Lime Cay, near Port Royal, when the fishing skiff, being used as a water taxi, got into trouble in rough seas. It turned out that the boat did not have sufficient safety gear, including life vests, for its 13 passengers.

LITTLE KNOWN ABOUT SUNKEN VESSEL

Relatively little is known, so far, about the circumstances aboard the Fallen Star, a 90-foot steel vessel, or of the men who crewed it before it went missing, except that it was last heard from on the evening of July 6. Three days later, debris fields were found in areas where you would expect to find litter from a vessel that sank in the region where Fallen Star was last detected. Laden with lobster pots, the boat, operated by Rainforest Seafoods, was on its way back to Jamaican waters, from post-season refurbishing in Honduras, for the new lobster season.

Fifty-eight years ago, the Snowboy (an old wooden vessel that had brought anti-Castro Cuban refugees to Jamaica before its local acquisition by Jamaican interests) left Kingston on July 1 for the Pedro Cays laden with fishing gear, food and other supplies for fishermen on the banks. The trip was expected to take eight hours and the vessel was last heard from four hours into the sail. However, the fact that it was lost only came to public attention on July 5, through this newspaper’s report of the likely tragedy.

Many people claimed that the Snowboy was overladen, and some also questioned its seaworthiness. The issues raised questions about the safety of fishing vessels and other boats operating in Jamaica, concerns that were still relevant more than half a century later in the December 27, 2018 incident involving the Geraldine, the fishing skiff transporting passengers to the cays near Port Royal.

OPERATING ILLEGALLY

Not only was the boat not licensed to carry passengers, but had more people than it was allowed as a fishing vessel. Additionally, its certification was out of date, which its captain, Hubert Dowie, said was not renewed because he could not afford the J$50,000 fee.

Mr Dowie was charged and convicted of four counts under the Harbours Act, including that his boat was not registered and that it was not authorised to transport passengers. He was fined a total of J$400 – J$100 on each charge – as Parish Judge Vaughn Smith explained during his March 2019 rule that that was the maximum allowed under the law.

It is not our sense that these laws, and the fines that go with them, have been updated since that incident. Neither, we believe, has an audit been done of the vessels fishing or otherwise operating in Jamaican waters. Large and exposed companies like Rainforest may be sensitive to the regulations and feel compelled to operate in accordance with them. Which, with respect to the Fallen Star, will be determined by the investigation.

But for many small and informal fishers and other boat operators, cutting corners and cutting costs may seem preferable to following the rules. But in times of crisis, as that incident with Geraldine highlighted, that can be a deadly business. 

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