Yahneake Sterling, Staff Reporter

Hurdley Sterling, one of over 43 deportees who returned from the United States yesterday. They were processed at the St. Paul's Church Hall in Kingston and released. - Norman Grindley/Deputy Chief Photographer

The normal processing of deportees, usually at the Criminal Investigative Bureau (CIB) headquarters, downtown Kingston, took a turn yesterday with 43 of them being processed at a church hall on Lockett Avenue in the capital.

According to Evelyn Mason, executive director of Land of My Birth, a charity organisation that assists deportees to reintegrate into society, the change from the Central Police Station was due to the lack of space to accommodate both the police and the charity group.

The 43 men were deported from the United States. This latest arrival brings the number of deportees returned to the country to more than 3,500 since January.

Police theorise that at least 70 per cent of the men served time for drug offences, while the remaining 30 per cent were returned on gun-related charges and immigration breaches.

Drug-related charges

Hurdley Sterling, a 48-year-old deportee among the lot, told The Gleaner that he was originally from Discovery Bay, St. Ann, and that he spent 17 years in prison on drug-related charges. He had lived in the U.S. for 27 years, including those years spent behind bars.

Mr. Sterling said the years spent behind bars have changed his life and that he now intends to stay on the right path now that he is back home.

"It feels great to be home. I want to get into the food business, livestock and fish," he said.

Andream Thomas, another deportee who is just 21 years old and from St. Mary, seemed lost as he waited for his family to arrive.

He said he had lived in the U.S. for 20 years, four of which he spent in prison on robbery charges.

Andream lived with his grandmother.

Asked what his plans were now that he is in Jamaica, he said, "I don't really know, I'm just sort of lost right now."

He said, however, that he had no intention of going down the wrong path again. Having received training in air conditioning and refrigerator repairs, he hopes to get a job where he can utilise his trade.