Gordon Williams, Contributor
A section of the audience at the opening ceremony of the Third Biennial Jamaican Diaspora Conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre. - File
AMID THE hive of activity that typified the recent biennial Jamaican Diaspora Conference, few would have picked out Anthony Richards as a possible troublemaker.
To the 700 delegates, many of whom arrived from the United States (US) for the two-day event, the articulate 40-year-old, hair neatly trimmed and casually dressed, wearing a flashy watch and carrying a thick American accent, fit right in among those milling the conference floor.
But then, not many knew Richards' story. And, according to one female delegate, even fewer knew his reason for showing up or that it took a hasty prayer session with Richards to avert a potential tragedy at the Jamaica Conference Centre.
"He was very emotional. He came to mash up the place," said the delegate. "Maybe rush the stage, do some damage. Hurt someone. He was upset. We had to calm him down."
Different version
A conversation with Richards produced a slightly different version. Yes, frustration had driven him from his home in Bull Bay, St Andrew, to downtown Kingston. No, lashing out with violence was not part of his plan when he got there.
Yet, both agreed on one point: Richards is a deportee from the US, unemployed, stressed and desperate for support, but feeling dumped off and abandoned in the land of his birth. With the gathering of high-profiled government officials, influential Jamaicans based locally and overseas, plus the media, the conference seemed a perfect spot to make his cause known.
"I am at the conference because issues that affect me, as a returning resident against my will," Richards said, voice tone sharpening all the time, often with a frightening edge fuelled by anger.
He did not wear an official identification badge at the conference. And there was not a stamp on his forehead that read 'deportee'. In other words, Richards looked normal, like everyone else. Except, he said, for the past four years he has been treated as anything but Jamaican. No job and away from his children in the US, Richards said he is lost in a place he should feel most comfortable. Worst, he believes, no one understands or is trying to help him and he doesn't see an immediate way out, even though he has much to offer.
'I am a human being'
"I'm a human being. I got senses, I got emotion, I got a brain," Richards explained. "So, if something is wrong, I'm going to react to it. I'm not going to pick up a gun and do crazy stuff. No. There's a better way."
Richards said he has lost jobs in Jamaica because employers discriminate against him. He claims that as soon as they hear his accent, discover he is a deportee, they try to shake him down, skim his pay.
"I was getting ripped off," he said. "You're gonna tell me that he (employer) is doing me a favour because I'm deported and all that stuff? So how do you feel? It's like you're a third-class citizen in the country you were born," he said.
People frown at him and lump him into the pile labelled 'All deportees are criminals'. A high school drop-out, who left Jamaica in his late teens, Richards said he had a good job in Boston "operating heavy equipment".
He earned "US$50,000 a year, gross pay" with "a little hustle on the side, a trash remover business." He said he owned a home. Now he has nothing.
Family to support
Nor does he get to comfort his two children, a son and daughter, ages 14 and 12. Their mother died in 2005, Richards said. One child is with an aunt somewhere, the other in a foster home. They hardly speak, he said, because he does not know how to contact them directly.
He survives by other means, displaying a recent Western Union transfer slip he claims represents money sent to him from England by his fiancée. It reads J$10,065.07, an equivalent of 74 British pounds. It's not nearly enough, he said, but he swears he won't work for "peanuts" in Jamaica. Meanwhile, the walls continue to close in on him.
"(I'm at) a point of no return," Richards admitted.
Yet, he is not alone. Many deportees in Jamaica feel exactly the same way, especially those who left the island as youngsters but have been forced back home with no support system. Successive Jamaican governments have lobbied the US to stem the tide. Violent criminals trained abroad should not be Jamaica's responsibility, they claim.
But the numbers are huge. Between 1997 and 2003, the year Richards said his horror journey began, more than 5,000 Jamaicans were deported to Jamaica from the US alone. Others come from the United Kingdom, some from Canada. Reports indicate that the numbers have declined in recent years, but the problems remain.
Criminal history
Law enforcement in Jamaica has consistently linked deportees to some of the most violent crimes in the country. They are accused of masterminding organised crime rings and gang-related activities. Yet, those not involved easily get stuck with the tag of mistrust and fear anyway.
So he does not want to stay. But he has to. Richards said he will try to enrol in school again, get a good job. But he wants the government in Jamaica to do more than "talk the talk".
"I wanna hear, in principle, what the government is doing for people who are less fortunate that have been removed from the United States or the UK or Canada or whatever country, against their will, under circumstances," Richards said, going back to the reason he was at the conference in the first place.
"What contingency plans? Because all these guys, they come back home and they don't have no links. There's a disconnect there. A lot of them were probably up to no good. I don't know. A lot of people were doing good and people just get caught up.
Just like Richards' life right now. Denials, the blame game and uncertainty just add to his problems. It raises the tension and people, like the female delegate, notice. They get worried Richards would explode in rage right there on the conference floor. He admitted he might be on the edge. But that's not why he attended the conference. In the largely polite atmosphere at the centre, he didn't care who was offended. Richards just wanted to air his grievances.
"To let people know what's going on here," he said. "The Government is not supporting people that get deported. They're profiling. The police department here profiles (deportees) and people get blacklisted here.
Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.
