By Paul A. Reid, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
SIXTEEN JAMAICAN fishermen who claim they have been stranded in the Central American country of Nicaragua for from five to 32 years, are seeking help to return home.
According to the men, a Jamaican businessman who had hired them to fish along the Central American coast, failed to pick them up when their business arrangements ended. They explain that since their presence in that country was illegal, they were afraid to approach the Nicaraguan Government for help to return to Jamaica.
Those stranded are two groups of fishermen, the first landing there in 1971 and the other in 1998.
The men said that another problem was that they owed the Nicaraguan Government hundreds of thousands of cordobas (Nicaraguan currency) in immigration taxes and some have no papers, as their passports and other identifying documents had been lost or destroyed.
The exchange rate for the cordobas against the US dollar is 15 to 1 or four cordobas to one Jamaican dollar.
Up to two years ago, attempts were made in Nicaragua through the former Jamaican Consul, the late Thomas Gordon, who had an office in Bluefields, to return the men to Jamaican soil. However, since Mr. Gordon's death two years ago, the efforts have stalled.
The fishermen say that if the Jamaican Government really cared about them, a serious effort would have been made to get them home.
However, when The Gleaner contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foriegn Trade, Delano Franklyn, the Minister of State, said that neither himself nor the minister was aware of the plight of the men being brought to the attention of the ministry.
"Up to a month ago, I was in dialogue with the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Nicaragua and this matter did not come up, simply because it was not raised with them nor with us officially," Mr. Franklyn said.
He said that for many years fishermen from Jamaica had been visiting the coastline of Nicaragua, Honduras and Costa Rica to fish.
"Many of them have developed good relationships with the citizens of these countries to the extent that many have dual families. Indeed
Bluefields in Nicaragua is an area that is historically connected to Jamaica. Jamaican fishermen and the descendants of Jamaicans are living there. I am not aware of Jamaican fishermen who are currently living in Nicaragua who are unable to return here because of difficulties. If that is so, they need to bring it to our attention and we will seek to investigate the matter," he said.
The men - Simon Sangster of Flankers, Montego Bay; Lennox McMahon of Lucea who turns 45 on September 1; Gladstone Anderson also of Lucea; Clarence 'Cutty' Samuels, 56, of Glendevon, Montego Bay; Simeon Vernal, 38, of Bogue, Montego Bay; Patrick Buchanan of Lucea; Ricardo Lewis of Kingston all went to Nicaragua in 1998 and are living in Bluefields. The sole exception is Anderson who is in Pearl Lagoon. Buchanan, whose father is Ucal 'Mr. Ackee' Buchanan, 57, is in jail.
The older group which went to Nicaragua in 1971 includes the older Buchanan, Henry Lloyd, Alwyn Facey, 48, of Junction, St. Elizabeth; and Lorenzo Charles Gayle, 71, also called 'John Awful' and 'Rockman', of Old Harbour Bay. The others are known only by their aliases 'Bird', 'Busta', 'Peng', 'Lester' and 'Jabez', 70-plus, who they reported was living in a lean-to at the back of the house of the family that 'adopted' him.
The men told The Gleaner that Jabez was not doing so well as he was "getting feeble" and losing his sight and hearing and cried every day that he wants to go home.
