MAMEE BAY, St Ann – The courts have given squatters at Mamee Bay in St Ann a one-week reprieve until May 17, effectively barring the owner of the prime piece of real estate from evicting the roughly 50 families there.

Some families have begun to move off the property, but others still insist that moving would be detrimental to the small tourism-related businesses they have managed to eke out. On Tuesday, cops patrolled the area as workmen, hired by landowner Tanny Shirley, dug holes for the erection of a fence, and employees of the Jamaica Public Service Company disconnected electricity supplies.

Shirley has been trying to get the squatters off the land since February, and there are reports that plans are in place for a US$100-million development on the property.

Here, some of the squatters, under the curious gaze of several youngsters, load their belongings onto a tractor after they vacated a section of the property yesterday. A front-end loader that was being used to clear a section of the land can be seen in the background.