At age 62, Carol Watson of Rock River, Clarendon, has a lot of life left in him yet. For, even as several of his contemporaries are starting to hang up the tools of their trade, a doctor just declared him fit for travel to Canada – to do the notoriously back-breaking work of picking fruits.

In Canada, Watson would have cemented nearly four decades in the Farm Work Programme, having first gone overseas, to the United States, to work 39 years ago under the programme administered locally through the labour ministry. For the first time since 1965, however, his future appears uncertain.

“I don’t know what is happening right now,” Watson said fretfully.

As his livelihood depends on the income from the overseas employment programme, Watson has every reason to be worried.

Labour Minister Horace Dalley recently announced plans to ban Rock River residents from participating in the programme, after five farm workers on the programme – four of them from Watson’s community – were caught with illegal drugs.

Dalley’s ban appeared to be a desperate measure to assuage the farm owners who are bitterly complaining about Jamaicans who abscond or get into illegal activities while on the programme. But Dalley’s action has drawn harsh criticism that it was a breach of natural justice and would cause the good to suffer for the bad.

Caught in the direct line of fire, Rock River residents argued vehemently that the three-year ban being proposed was “unfair” and would result in “extreme hardship” for most families.

“Our lives depend on the farm work programme,” Icelyn James, a potential farm worker, complained to the Sunday Observer.

“We produce coffee and cocoa in this community, and we are not into drugs,” she declared.

“We don’t know of anything like that (drugs) happening around here, and we were shocked to hear that something like that took place. But what we do know,” James continued, “is that quite a few guys and ladies go on farm work in Canada and the USA and this is how they support their families.”

Added James: “If the Government should stop people from this community from going, people would be greatly hurt and distressed. they would suffer because they depend on it for survival. So I don’t think they should spite the community because of what they said some people did, and cause a lot of people to suffer.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by Melvin Barnett, a farm worker from the community, who has been going to the US to work on a tobacco farm for the last 10 years.

“What Mr Dalley has said about banning the workers from Rock River, I don’t think he should make a speech like that because Mr Dalley can’t take one man’s fat and fry the workers from Rock River,” Barnett argued.

“There are many workers from Rock River who go to the US, and the guys that they caught with the drugs were going to Canada, so I don’t think he should make a speech like that,” he said.

For seasoned farm workers like Watson, the minister’s proposed ban would “crush” his dreams.

“I still have work left to do on my house which is in need of repairs right now,” Watson said. Furthermore, his last child (16 years old) was still in high school and he needed the income to support his family.

“Is the farm work money me use to feed and school all four of my children,” said Watson, who noted that his eldest child was now 27 years old.

Watson has been going to the same farm in Canada since 1974. He worked for up to eight months each year on Thwaites Farm, harvesting pears, peaches, plumbs, apples and grapes. His employers consistently requested his presence on the farm each season because he worked hard.

“I already do medical to go back up this year, and I am waiting to be called. but to what the minister said, he is going to put a ban on the Rock River area,” he said. “I don’t know if it will affect me,” he added worriedly. “I don’t know if he will withdraw the statement, so right now I just hoping and praying and keeping my fingers crossed, hoping that it doesn’t affect me.”

Watson is hoping that he will be able to get a few more trips in to complete the mission he started decades ago.

“After travelling back and forth, I bought one cow, and get more cows, until I could sell and buy a piece of land (1 1/2 acres). And I keep going (to Canada). and a feed mi family and school mi children. and I save mi money and make a move to start build a house.”

The house he referred to is a three-bedroom which is still under construction. The completed portion is in need of repairs.

“I need to keep working, for if I should lose this job, nobody going to employ me now – I’m too old,” he moaned.

The Watson family plants a few cash crops, but this activity does not generate sufficient income.

“If they stop workers from this area from going, it will affect the community in a bad way because that is how lots of guys around here make their living – some younger than me and maybe older than me. Some even stop travelling long while now,” he recalled.

Watson’s wife, Icelyn, 54, agreed that if the Government banned Rock River residents from the programme, most families would suffer.

“Is mi husband one support me and the kids because I am not working, so it would be very hard on us,” she added.

Like Watson, Winston Gordon, who has been going to the US to work since 1978, is worried that the ban would affect his livelihood.

“A farm work give me everything me have. Mi house, mi car. everything. So it would be a bad thing if they stopped people from this area because a whole heap a wi depend on it.”

Melvin Barnett urged the labour minister to reconsider his stance, as there are “lots of benefits” that flow to the country through the programme.

“It is big benefit to me personally because you know that jobs in Jamaica hard to get. The unemployment rate is very high. You don’t have many jobs in Jamaica, and going to the United States is a big help to us. It doesn’t help me alone, it helps my family, it helps strangers, it helps the country and many other people. So going to the US is a big help to me and the whole Jamaica,” Barnett insisted.

Joining the fray, Opposition member of parliament for the area, Pearnel Charles, reiterated his position that the Government’s decision was draconian and unjust.

“I am resolute that the Government’s position is an unfair and an unjust position, it may even be unconstitutional as far as human rights and justice is concerned. And I am holding to that. I have also requested that the Government do not impose any ban on the whole community, but take steps to investigate those that have been thought to be involved, and to apply sanctions to them – not to decent, law-abiding people who would never get involved in drugs.”

Charles told the Sunday Observer that a meeting had been scheduled for early this week, possibly on Tuesday, at which time the labour minister was expected to clearly state his position on the proposed ban.

He said the minister, accepting that there was room for concern, had promised to review the decision, and make a statement on the matter at the meeting.

According to Charles, Dalley also accepted his proposal to arrange a meeting with a small delegation from the Rock River community “to explain their side and to hear the Government’s position”.