Haitian women held at home of Jamaican man in St Thomas to seek asylum

An application for asylum is pending for two Haitians who were arrested in St Thomas last Friday, their attorney has disclosed.

Attorney Odane Marston made the disclosure in the St Thomas Parish Court on Thursday before the two Haitians and a Jamaican were granted bail on several criminal charges.

The Haitians, Yvelise Conte and Claudia Thomas, were each offered $300,000 bail and ordered to report to the police every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday.

They are facing charges of illegal entry and overstaying their time in Jamaica.

Edson Thompson, the Jamaican man charged for harbouring an illegal alien, was also offered the same bail conditions.

Conte and Thomas were arrested by the police after they were allegedly found at Thompson’s home near the border of St Thomas and Portland last Friday.

Marston told the court, in his application for bail, that the women are from a very violent part of the Haitian capital Port au Prince.

He also urged the judge not to view them as flight risks because of the asylum application.

All three are scheduled to return to court on April 17.

- Livern Barrett

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