THE Jamaican government is no longer under any obligation to treat as refugees Haitians who fled here as a result of the violence that led up to the ouster of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, according to government officials.

“Because the situation has changed qualitatively, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) now says that they are not saying to the Jamaican government that people who apply for refugee status are, necessarily, to be perceived as refugees.,” said Stephen Vascianni, the head of the international division in the attorney-general’s chambers.

“In some places (in Haiti) it has stabilised to the point where one can make a judgment in individual cases as to whether somebody going back will, in fact, be subject to persecution,” Vascianni told the Sunday Observer.

In the wake of internecine violence that started in late 2003 and culminated in Aristide’s forced departure on February 29 last year, more than 500 Haitian boat people risked the hazardous journey in rickety boats to Jamaica. Many claimed that they were Aristide loyalists and would be killed if they went back home. The UNHCR appealed to the region to provide emergency support.

According to Vascianni, during a recent visit to Jamaica, the UNHCR’s representative to the United States and the Caribbean, Kolude Doherty, “noted that Jamaica was one of the few countries that actually responded positively to this need, and he thanked the Jamaican government for providing emergency assistance”.

Now, that emergency help is apparently no longer needed, the UNHCR has ended emergency aid to Jamaica to help defray some of the cost of housing and feeding the boat people housed in St James and Portland.

“Because the circumstances (in Haiti) changed, they are not in a position to provide the funds they used to provide,” explained Vascianni. “There is no emergency situation requiring funding.”

But those who had harshly criticised the Jamaican government’s decision not to allow the bulk of the refugees to stay here, will likely point to a March 24 melee when lawmen opened fire during a pro-Aristide street march in Port-Au-Prince. At least one protestor was killed and two others injured. That shooting had followed a spate of violence earlier in the week that left two UN peacekeepers and two ex-soldiers dead.

At the height of the fighting in Haiti, boatloads of Haitians arriving on Jamaica’s shores became the norm. For several months now, there has been a noticeable decrease in the numbers with one of the last batches of 51 arriving in Portland on March 10.

And while they process the newcomers, local officials still have to wade through the pile of appeals made by Haitians who had originally been denied asylum here.

Roughly 211 had initially applied for refugee status, while the others voluntarily went back home.

“The eligibility committee found that seven of the people established a claim which would entitle them to refugee status,” explained Vascianni. “The others, the eligibility committee found that they didn’t establish a claim.

In other words they didn’t show that they had a well-founded fear of persecution on political or religious grounds or on the basis of belonging to a social group that was suffering from persecution. Now, these people, many of them, have lodged appeals.”

About four of these appeals have been successful, with the appellants having convinced a three-man panel that they would face persecution if they went back home.

“They have a genuine fear of persecution, based upon political grounds,” Foreign Affairs Minister K D Knight told the Sunday Observer.

He said he had signed off on the appeal panel’s recommendation about two weeks ago, and those who had been given permission to stay were members of one family.

Others might get to stay when the tribunal hearing their cases meets again on Wednesday and Thursday. Because each of the asylum seekers has to be interviewed, the process has dragged on for almost two years. Some of the Haitians who had appealed have given up and have voluntarily gone back home. The latest batch of 34 left on Friday, with help from the UNHCR.

“Nobody has been sent back because their appeals were denied. Everybody who has gone back has voluntarily asked to be sent back,” explained Nancy Anderson, an attorney working on some of the appeal cases.

The 34 who left the island on Friday had been housed at the Montpelier Camp in St James. Among the group of 17 men, seven women, eight boys and two girls were four children who were born here.

These children are, by law, Jamaicans and have the right to live here once they are adults. According to Vascianni, the parents of these children do not earn the right to remain in the island simply because the mother gave birth on Jamaican soil.

“In keeping with various decisions in other countries. that child can live in Jamaica as a Jamaican (once old enough to make that decision). But there are no derivative rights from the child to the parent,” he said.

“There are clear and good policy reasons why this is so, otherwise you may have people who would use the fact that a child has been born to remain here, even though they are not entitled to refugee status.”

Those who have been granted asylum now have to integrate themselves into the society, with no special help from the government.

“The standard of treatment to which they are entitled is called ‘most favoured nation treatment’. In effect, that means that they are expected to make a living like any foreigner living in Jamaica,” explained Vascianni.

“I’m not saying if they approach a government agency and seek some help they might not get it. But what the law requires is just that they are entitled to work like anybody else. There is no requirement that work will be found for them.”

Generally speaking, Knight added, some individuals and organisations might come forward to help the new residents settle in.

“Sometimes there are families who will accept them, there are business places that will offer assistance and the UNHCR will sometimes offer assistance in terms of their settling in their new jurisdiction,” he said. “We wait to see what will happen in this specific case.”