Some of the Haitian refugees being housed at the Montpelier, St. James holding complex. - FILE
WESTERN BUREAU:
THE HAITIANS refugees at the Montpelier camp in St. James, reacted with glee to the postponement of plans by Government authorities to repatriate them to their war-torn homeland, yesterday.
"We are happy ... Haiti is a dangerous place and I don't want to go back there at this time," said Christophe Marquis, who spent most of Monday dreading the prospect of what would happen to him once he was back on Haitian soil. "I have dangerous enemies there who want to kill me."
However, their jubilation may be short-lived as the Jamaican Government is still negotiating with the authorities in Haiti to overcome the glitches that have stalled the repatriation process.
"There will be no movement between the camps for the rest of this week. We cannot say definitively when the Haitians will be repatriated as there are a number of other factors involved," Paul Saunders, national coordinator in the Ministry of National Security, said.
On Monday, there had been many sad faces at both the Montpelier camp and the Winnifred Rest Home, in Fairy Hill, Portland, as the Haitians, some of whom had applied for asylum in Jamaica without success, packed their few belongings and began making mental preparation for the flight that was expected to take them to the Toussaint L'Ouverture Airport in Port-au-Prince. There are reportedly 495 Haitians being housed in both camps.
