Unwelcome Strangers: the Deportee Experience

Lazie

Reggae Govenor General

Join Date: Jul 2006

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Unwelcome Strangers: the Deportee Experience

November 22, 2006, 03:58 PM

When you mention deportees, most people think drugs, guns, mayhem and murder. Not lonely, homeless people who desperately need to feel welcome. “You know when you leave Jamaica, it is like 20 years I leave here, when I come back, nobody know me and I don’t know nobody - an a hardly know de place” said Rudolph Gentles, who was deported from Chicago, Illinois in 2004.

He spent four and a half years in a US prison in the 1980’s on his first robbery conviction, the authorities in the US deported him after he was caught stealing a second time.

“When I came out the airport, I was thinking I was going to rob somebody, because I don’t have no money , and then I called the person who I am supposed to go with – I am getting a busy signal and is collect call I have to make, I have no money to call no one…. So when I was there, a taxi man came up to me and said, “Do you want to go home? There’s a cab here.” I told him I don’t have any money and he said, “Where you coming from?” and I told him I was coming from United States Immigration.

So he said, “You don’t have any money?” I told him no, so he gave me $100….. And I bought a patty and a <A class=kLink oncontextmenu="return false;" id=KonaLink3 onmouseover=adlinkMouseOver(event,this,3); style="POSITION: static; TEXT-DECORATION: underline! important" onclick=adlinkMouseClick(event,this,3); onmouseout=adlinkMouseOut(event,this,3); href="http://www.radiojamaica.com/news/story.php?category=9&story=30253#" target=_top><SPAN class=kLink style="FONT-WEIGHT: 400; FONT-SIZE: 10p

"Jamaica's future reflects its past, having attained only one per cent annual growth over 30 years whilst neighbours have grown at five per cent." (Article)
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Unwelcome Strangers: the Deportee Experience