By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterOPPOSITION SENATOR Dwight Nelson has called on Government to reconsider its decision to ban residents of Rock River in Clarendon from participating in the overseas farm work programme after three men from the community were held for allegedly transporting illegal drugs.
Speaking during Friday's sitting of the Senate, Mr. Nelson said the Ministry of Labour and Social Security which oversees the employment programme must seek remedies for the image-tarnishing export of drugs, "which do not punish whole communities for the actions of a few."
"I submit that it is necessary to put in as tight, as rigorous, as unchallenged as possible, the kind of security and checks and balances to ensure that this kind of transgression does not occur again," Senator Nelson said.
INNOCENT PEOPLE
He added: "(But) to place a total ban on any participation in the programme from the communities from which the accused men came, I think, is a kind of overreaction that certainly seeks to punish the innocent people within a community."
He was speaking after a call from Government Senator Floyd Morris, made on the motion for adjournment, for persons to report anyone they know has intentions to use the programme as a cover for illicit activity.
"It can't be that some selfish individual through personal gains want to jeopardise the programme that is contributing significantly to the development of this country," Senator Morris, who is also State Minister in the Labour Ministry, said.
He noted that last year the savings and returns from the farm work programme in Canada amounted to US$7 million. "That is 20 per cent of the amount that they earned, so cumulatively they would have earned US$35 million."
Senator Morris also pointed to the $12 million brought in from the United States programme, and its cumulative US$60 million.
"So totally you are talking about US$95 million that comes from the farm work programme overseas," he said. There are approximately 15,000 Jamaicans who travel annually to the United States and Canada to participate in the programme.
Last week, after meeting with Canadian High Commissioner Claudio Valle, Labour Minister Horace Dalley announced tough new measures to be implemented for the programme.
NEW MEASURES
Among the new measures was the reduction of the number of farm work cards issued annually to constituencies from which persons found to be involved in the illegal drug trade come; tighter surveillance at the farm work holding centre along East Street, downtown Kingston (to include sniffer dogs); a prohibition on the transportation of all items, except clothing; a police escort of buses transporting workers to the airport for travel overseas; and the screening of all flights on which farmers leave the country.
