Alone in a hellhole, praying to go home

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS-born Jean Rony Jean-Charles said he was given the equivalent of $4.69 to start a new life in Haiti.

It was only when he walked out of the plane and onto the tarmac in Port au Prince, he said, the dread that had been building in the pit of his stomach as he waited in vain for immigration officers at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre to verify his identity - exploded.

His attorney Fred Smith yesterday sent letters to the government, requesting they facilitate his return to the country as requested by the courts last month.

On December 19, the Supreme Court gave the government an additional 21 days to produce Mr Jean-Charles and to provide evidence justifying his deportation or be held in contempt of court.

The court imposed deadline would have passed on Friday, January 19.

Temperatures in Haiti’s capital on November 24, 2017 when Mr Jean-Charles was expelled from the country peaked at an arid 91.4 F.

Wet from his own urine because he was refused use of the airplane’s bathroom, he said he fought hard to suppress reacting physically to the panic and fear that permeated his body.

When that failed, it was the reassurances of a friend he’d made during his nearly two month stay at the Carmichael Road Detention Centre that provided some comfort.

“Wesley,” Mr Jean-Charles said. “I don’t know his last name, yeah he save my life ‘cause he said he wouldn’t let anything happen to me.

“The first time I came here I wanted to cry. You should see the part where they put us in Port-au-Prince, to see the waters and the muck. I almost drop, like what, this is where I is? What type of hell-hole I’m in?”

Deportees were bused to a large yard and given $300 HTG (Haitian gourde), he said.

The amount converts to around US $4.69 - and it was all he had.

“(Immigration) They just drop us there and we walk to one big mango tree, we chill there and wait on a bus, and that carried us to another big place.

“I think it’s (amount of money) that, I’m not sure nobody said nothing, the last officials I saw was leaving Nassau.

“I left with Wesley, he carry me by he people them place. I stayed there for a couple days until I see the hill was too slippery and too high and it hurt my feet to the point I couldn’t walk. He had to almost carry me down every time we went out, big man like me.

“I saw one n, Wesley say he’s a Bahamian and they deport him too, and he mussy lose his head and gone crazy. I say boy I hope I don’t turn like that. I always pray, I hope I don’t turn like that. I could see it happening, I feel like I going crazy.”

Back in Nassau, and unbeknownst to him, Mr Jean-Charles’ sister Clotilde, and other loved ones, had organised a social media campaign hoping to network with families of people who had been deported with him and could provide any details about his whereabouts.

Weeks passed before attorney Mr Smith was put in contact with Wesley who told them Mr Jean-Charles had left and was now living in the wilderness in a very rough area.

Immediately recognising an opportunity to make some money, Mr Smith said Wesley offered to go out and bring him back, and provide lodging – for a fee. The next step, Mr Smith said, was to verify his identity. In the end a friend of Mr Jean-Charles’ cousin, named Fresnel, who lived in Port de Paix, made the sojourn with his photo and brought him back to live with him.

Mr Jean-Charles said: “I thought no one was checking for me. I say, man they send me in hell.

“When I was in the Detention Centre,” he continued, “I been there from September and no one come see me, no one know where I was. I thought I was lost for true because I was done making up my mind about running away, wait until everyone go sleep and run away, get lost. Just go, you can’t make it. It did make me feel better for true when Fresnel showed me the picture of myself.”

Mr Jean-Charles said he had long run out of money and he was now 35, having spent his birthday, December 5, in the bush. In the north Haitian slums of Port de Paix, conditions were even worse, albeit safer.

“From I been here,” he said, “you have to go way down there (bottom of the hill) to get water. They drinking that water, cooking with that water, and bathing with that. Sometimes I don’t drink it, I just take a sip, I guess that’s why my throat is be hurting, I ain’t drink good water yet, I ain’t eat a good meal yet, just dry rice and thing.

“People cooking on the side of the road, all you can do is watch with your belly hurting. You gotta pay for that, you ain’t getting nothing free not here.

“I don’t like depend on people and I can’t do nothing for them,” he continued.

“I’m dependent on them (Fresnel and his family) and I don’t like that. I went to work once, with one fella, he carry me to work. They work hard, these blocks you see all around they’re lifting them by hand and on these hills. Sometimes my legs give out on me, so he didn’t ask me back.

“The other day it rained and a house fell down, I don’t want to be around when houses falling down, because I think three people died in that. The pavement just sink down and the house fell with it.”

The Tribune spent two hours in Port de Paix with Mr Jean-Charles with temperatures climbing to 90 F under a blistering sun. It had rained the day before and there were puddles of murky water and thick muck. To get to Fresnel’s home from the wide strip of dirt that served both as a highway and runway took about 20 minutes by car, and another ten minutes on foot along a winding, steep, and at times slippery path - the width of which was dictated by the positioning of homes and gardens.

“I’m always sliding, I almost drop (off a ridge), some of them drop. You should see the little babies they so small and they know how to walk on these hills. I say how come the baby can walk and I can’t even walk on these hills. Houses all about, houses way on top of the hill, if you slide you’re gonna drop in a hole.

“You gotta grow your own food, and buy the meat or fish. Small fish, baby fish.”

Mr Jean Charles continued: “You see one person caught a marlin fish, it was already dead he was sharing it out, that was a big meal for them for couple days. Food is hard, you see food around the streets you hungry but if you don’t have no money no one giving you nothing. “It’s rough. They just have animals, they don’t have no pets.”

Fresnel’s home was made of bare cement with corrugated tin roofs, his porch featured stone rivets and tiles that were hand carved - an inkling of the critically-acclaimed craftsmanship for which the country is recognised. However, most were made of a range of materials, part cement, wood, plastic sheeting and tin. The village had no running water or power, no plumbing or toilets. Underfoot, litter could be faintly seen peeking out from the mud as if compacted and worn from constant traffic and transformed into the landscape.

“Where you sitting, that’s where I sit all day,” he said, sitting on the porch of Fresnel’s one-bedroom home.

“Just looking at over there (another hillside filled with seemingly precariously placed homes), thinking what’s next.

“When I see I looking too much my head start to hurt and I go lay down, wake up when dark fall, when dark fall ain’ no light like that. Only a few places have light like that.”

In Cap Haitian, The Tribune was told that electricity was cut off at sundown. At night, bars and restaurants run generators.

But in Port de Paix, Mr Jean-Charles said there was only darkness aided by an occasional thin candle.

“I don’t hardly talk to them, they always ask why don’t you talk, but it ain’t nothing to say, I can’t say nothing. I don’t know, I have to wait to ask (someone who speaks English) because when they answer me I don’t know what they’re saying. (Fresnel) He don’t speak English good like that, the only person that spoke English good was Wesley.”

Mr Jean-Charles said he wants to venture out to get some form of identification documents, but said up until this point, he has not been able to communicate this request successfully and had no money to facilitate any sort of extended travel to the city.

Despite the pervading dust, trash and muck, and oppressive heat, the village bustled with energy and high spirits and most persons encountered often broke out into warm smiles. There was an indescribable sense of pride, an unassuming dignity that Mr Jean-Charles said has humbled him in spite of the sharp cultural differences.

“They piss anywhere,” he said, “in Nassau you can’t do that. I just want to get from around here, it’s like my head ready to explode. I see why people risk their life to come (to the Bahamas).

“I see this the other day the woman over there cook some dry rice for the children. You see how the children them dirty and thing, I said man, they serious. Just like that dry rice, that’s what they having for breakfast, small, small children, just rice.

“Sometimes they go out to work, they mommy leave them home to clean and twice I said I’m not doing nothing lemme clean the dishes or something. The guy caught me doing that and he said never again, so I just leave it.

“You hear all this noise,” he continued, “you can’t hear what they saying. It stay busy until 1am, they go to sleep 3am they done back up making noise again, the first time I came I couldn’t even breathe the air it stays smoky. Fires here stay burning.

“To me I feel like this a dream, like I still dreaming, every morning I wake up I’m still dreaming. I just is meditate and pray and don’t watch nothing.”

Mr Jean-Charles added: “I wish I had wings, I’d just fly back to Nassau.”

Comments

TalRussell says...

Ma Comrade Braddas, if the court had ordered an ordinary individual produce Jean Rony in the physical no later than Friday, January 19,2017, and that set deadline had passed - .we would be facing quick arrest and imprisonment for contempt court.... so, go arrest and brungs to court in leg irons the government official most in contempt. Lock 'Em up FOR NOT brungin Bəheɪmɪən Jean Rony, back his beloved Homeland.
Amen!

Posted 24 January 2018, 10:57 a.m. Suggest removal

licks2 says...

The court has no jurisdiction in Haiti. . .Jean is not Bahamian according to the constitution. . .the court can't habus corpus a citizen from another country! The mr mess-up his only chance for application. . .our constitution can only give protection if he is in this country. . .

Posted 24 January 2018, 7:37 p.m. Suggest removal

ThisIsOurs says...

Hope he gets home. People ask the question who is a Bahamian or what makes you Bahamian? "Bahamian" is a mindset I think. There are some people who want papers so they can live here and work but they identify with Haiti or Jamaica or wherever their native land is. They're just here because it's convenient. This man IS "Bahamian", he doesn't identify with any other country, he's wondering why "his" people forsook him.

Once that's done don't let another child go through this. Stop the illegal migration, someone at the top is profiting off of it, cut them off.

Posted 24 January 2018, 10:58 a.m. Suggest removal

My2centz says...

The solution is simple: amend the constitution to grant birthright citizenship or don't...just be clear. This so called entitlement and window of application has created a mess. It's even messier when the minister himself states these persons should not be deported, but takes no action to clarify the chaos or state what the process is for them to be legalized.

Posted 24 January 2018, 11:58 a.m. Suggest removal

Government can't amend that. . .that's enshrined and must be done by referendum. . .the minister should not put himself out front of the constitution. . .the constitution leaves no room for redress. . .

Posted 24 January 2018, 7:40 p.m. Suggest removal

joeblow says...

If you can identity as a different gender, you can identify as another nationality! No proof has been provided that he is a Bahamian citizen so he was sent home. I agree that a definitive view based on the law and not potential political blow back must be made soon!

Posted 24 January 2018, 1:28 p.m. Suggest removal

seamphony says...

i am glad he was found but we can't help people who won't help themselves.

the system allowed him to get regularized at 18. what did he do instead? bummed around and went to jail, got out, and bummed around some more until he had no proof of residency when asked by immigration. He had a right (which he didn't use) not an entitlement.

Us regular people complain about the time consuming red tape of government but still take care of our business regardless.

Posted 24 January 2018, 11:18 a.m. Suggest removal

Sickened says...

Good points. It certainly is a sad case and I truly feel for the man BUT people have to learn to help themselves. People need to put in the effort to have a good life. Very few of us do what we do because we love it, we do it because we see it as the best way forward. This man had every opportunity to get his papers in (maybe he did) and get straight. He can't blame anyone but himself!
You are home now Jean Rony Jean-Charles. It may suck but you gotta make the most of it and do what you can to make your home better.

Posted 24 January 2018, 11:44 a.m. Suggest removal

He said his documents got burned in a fire last year. I don't know if that's true that's what he said. He said he saved an entire family from a burning house. Is that true..don't know, but if it is look how we paid him back

Posted 24 January 2018, 2:08 p.m. Suggest removal

Cas0072 says...

I am sure he could have gotten an affidavit to submit along with his application. I hope this sends a message to the rest to adhere to the law by applying during the designated window.

Posted 24 January 2018, 7 p.m. Suggest removal

hrysippus says...

I feel so bad for poor Jean Rony,.. ..... ......
Trapped in Haiti feeling lonely, .. ... .. ..
Torn away from all he's known, .. ... ...
Into a Port-a=Prince hell-Hole he's thrown, ........ ... ...
How can immigration officers be so callous, ......... . ....
Acting with such thoughtless malice, .......... ........... ....
They couldn't bother his papers to check, .. .. ....
As if he was playing cards against a loaded deck, ............ .... ..
And what sort of monster makes him wet his pants, ........ ..... ...
Requests for the bathroom seen as rants, ..... .... ........
Treated like a lower form of being, ......... ... ................ ......
We must punish these men for this evil we're seeing... ....... ...

Because if we don't, then God surely will.

Posted 24 January 2018, 11:43 a.m. Suggest removal

Ma Dear Comrade Braddas, you're all missing that it should not be in the domain of some immigration official to swoop Jean Rony off the street whilst legally going about his business to be carted off in secret to a stranger land of Haiti, Who in hell made the immigration department the Sayers of whose Bəheɪmɪən and who's not. Can they just ignore fair justice for all. Jean Rony committed no crime unless its a crime be lacking in book learning, but that shouldn't have been enough treat him like some black slave-of colonial days.
Is immigration to be given the green light to become the brown shirts organization to most fear for the possibility to lose one's freedom of movement in and about the Bahamaland?

Posted 24 January 2018, 11:56 a.m. Suggest removal

John says...

This again begs the question, ‘ why didn’t this young man make any attempt to contact his family back in the Bahamas?” Seems like he just accepted his fate being sent to Haiti. Second point: How many other people have been deported in likewise manner but was not as fortunate to have their case publicized and be tracked down with the possibility of being returned to the Bahamas. And thirdly, this should serve as an eye opener for the many hundreds or thousands who have similar status to Jean-Charles. The law requires you to file to become regularised on your 18th birthday. If you are 35 and still haven’t filled, you cannot put all the fault on the government. And also let it be an eye opener to persons who are in this country seeking citizenship or permanent residency. Become aware of the conditions under which your parents fled Haiti to come here. Appreciate the fact that whilst things may not be perfect, you are one of the fortunate ones. So respect your host country. In the United States they are using immigration reform to revoke permanent status from persons who have been living in that country all their lives. Persons who have professional careers and are married with children and grandchildren are being sent back home for minor crimes they committed many years ago. As far back as when they were teenagers in college. And they have even no possibility of even visiting the US again.

Posted 24 January 2018, 12:21 p.m. Suggest removal

Why? Because he was defeated. He gave up. He lost all hope. He had no money. He doesn't know where he is. He has issues with mobility. He went from living in a house with indoor plumbing one day to imprisonment to living in the bush no food or water. Completely defeated. He already told you he was there in the detention center from September and nobody came to see him.

Posted 24 January 2018, 2:01 p.m. Suggest removal

birdiestrachan says...

The court deadline ended January 19th the QC suddenly found him. The Drama King.

Posted 24 January 2018, 12:43 p.m. Suggest removal

The Haitian embassy who said they had no record of this man been sent to Haiti and the drama QC were all playing games. Perhaps because they view Bahamians as being dumb, no sense at all. so they played their game. The sister was in it too, He said no one came to see him while
he was at the detention center.

Donald Trump was right. This man has the same description Of Haiti.

Posted 24 January 2018, 1:52 p.m. Suggest removal

Maybe they were. The only one not playing a game is Jean Rony, he is living in hell.

Posted 24 January 2018, 2:02 p.m. Suggest removal

sealice says...

trying to get out of that shitehole because he tinks dis shitholio is better?

Posted 24 January 2018, 2:21 p.m. Suggest removal

Ma Comrade Braddas, why are you wanting Jean Rony to be made struggle to be returned to his place of birth? You and I would be leg-ironed to do the Bank Lane shuffle to appear in front Judge for contempt.... so, send policeman's go arrest some government minister, or official, and leg-iron them. Lock 'Em up for contempt da court, today... and while at it send policeman's arrest politicians for not abiding by the LAW to file financial disclosures and on time. Sorry, its not Jean
Rony, whose ignored the law, its the PM, who himself had set a June 30, 2017 DEADLINE. Truth is Jean Rony, did his time his crime, but not the politicians.. they owe the nation 2 years jail-time.

Posted 24 January 2018, 2:24 p.m. Suggest removal

Home is home no matter what kind of sh!t hole it may be. When Home sickness hit you, all you want is home. And even your children and grandchildren who may have never visited grows a desire to visit Home. And when you watch the millions of people who have fled their homelands in the Middle East in the dead of winter with the clothes on their back. And the natives In Libya and other African countries who are being butchered alive because people want to steal their countries’s natural resources we, Bahamians, have much to be thankful for.

Posted 24 January 2018, 3:10 p.m. Suggest removal

sheeprunner12 says...

And the Haitians are offended when Trump called the place a shit hole???????????????

That is a true and correct definition of "shit hole" ............ Jean Charles provided the proof.

Posted 24 January 2018, 4:43 p.m. Suggest removal

DEDDIE says...

You are most likely right sheeprunner. I grew-up in a crap-hole but if you call my crap-hole a crap-hole you will definitely have a fight on your hands. Basically, the same as the son of a prostitute fighting for his mother's honor because the boy down the road call his mother a "ho".

Posted 24 January 2018, 6:32 p.m. Suggest removal

Sad as as I am to read about his situation, there is no legal justification for granting him citizenship. Doing so would only reinforce the incorrect notion of birthright citizenship. He gained the right to apply on a loophole and foolishly lost it on a loophole. The minister will need to use his ministerial discretion here if they want to grant this man status.

Posted 24 January 2018, 6:52 p.m. Suggest removal

bogart says...

So much said but we need to hear from the Haitian Ambassador and the Haitian Govt.??

Posted 24 January 2018, 7:25 p.m. Suggest removal

We need to suspend the Haitian Embassy and declare war on that shithole.

Posted 24 January 2018, 8:37 p.m. Suggest removal

TheMadHatter says...

You are correct - but overall we would prefer to die as a nation and go extinct as a culture - that's just who we are. We don't deserve to survive.

Posted 24 January 2018, 9:36 p.m. Suggest removal

Aegeaon says...

Why so? You can perfectly lose because of that ridiculous decision.

Posted 25 January 2018, 12:45 p.m. Suggest removal

May I suggest the Tribune inquire why did the Haitian Embassy gave a report that said
this man's name was not on their deportation list??. and stop believing every thing the
Drama king has to say. As they should know the Drama King never speaks well of
black Bahamians or the Bahamas. He has you folks for stupid.

Posted 25 January 2018, 3:01 p.m. Suggest removal

Sooooo, what ethic-group of Bahamian are you??????

Posted 25 January 2018, 6:25 p.m. Suggest removal

birdie is of the afro-Caucasian-mitchellncity.

Posted 25 January 2018, 9:14 p.m. Suggest removal

BahamaRed says...

This is a perfect example of entitlement mentality, because he was born here he feels citizenship is his right.

The law clearly states that an application must be made at 18 yrs of age. So for 17 years this man did nothing...he deserves to stay in Haiti. I'd make him get a Haitian passport and then maybe seek to apply for resident status.

Goes to show how many of them disrespect the law of the land and then want to cry foul when it catches up to them. I don't feel sorry, hope they have him in the shittiest hole in Haiti.

Let this be a lesson... I am sure it doesn't take 17yrs to get straight if you have proof that you were born here. 17yrs...how many times the government changed in 17yrs, how many immigration reform exercises have been carried out and this dude isn't straight.

Gtfoh....he was operating under slackness and got caught.

Posted 26 January 2018, 9:38 a.m. Suggest removal