MONTEGO BAY, St James — Unlicensed raft operators told to vacate White River Beach in Ocho Rios a month ago should be back on the job soon, according to Minister of Tourism Edmund Bartlett.

“Having been in the reset phase, now we’re ready for re-engagement,” the minister said in response to questions from Opposition Member of Parliament Fitz Jackson during Thursday’s meeting of the Standing Finance Committee.

“In addition to that, we have increased the number of activities around that area… There is another river that is now being looked at for regularisation; near enough to enable others,” Bartlett added.

On February 7 Tourism Product Development Company Ltd (TPDCo), an agency of the ministry Bartlett leads, told the rafters they needed to vacate the popular attraction by the February 13 because of concerns about behaviour that made some visitors feel unsafe. The rafters said they were told to seek employment at Rio Nuevo in St Mary, a suggestion they balked at even as they insisted they were not the ones engaged in criminal activity at White River. That suggested relocation to St Mary was also met with resistance from Port Maria Mayor Fitzroy Wilson who expressed concern that he and other stakeholders had not been consulted and no security arrangements had been put in place to accommodate the rafters.

In the weeks after they were displaced, some raft operators pleaded for a solution to be found so they could resume earning.

On Thursday, Jackson asked for an update on their fate.

“The information, I gather, is that a number of persons have been displaced. I don’t know the full depth of the contributing factors, but whatever they may be, what steps are being taken so that livelihood can be restored there for those rafters and many families who depend on revenues from that activity?” the St Catherine Southern MP enquired.

Bartlett first explained that TPDCo was forced to step in, following the detection of discrepancies at the attraction.

“The fact is that the White River had become inundated with a population density that was unhealthy and reflected itself in various unsocial behaviour patterns, including being taken over by elements that are, to say mildly — unsavoury — which attracted the attention of the security forces to the point where we had to establish a system for clear, hold, and reset the entire operation. And that’s what we’ve done,” the tourism minister explained.

According to Bartlett, a TPDCo team visited the site and engaged with local stakeholders to determine the best way to sustainably manage the facility. He said the goal was to bring unlicensed operators into the formal system and equip them with skills needed.

“Those people who are illegal, we can get them to become legal. In other words, to train them and for them to understand what their responsibilities are, and also to be equipped to provide the three S’s we want: safe, secure, and seamless operation,” he said.

“And finally, to reset, and this is to now regulate, through collaboration with the Jamaica Constabulary Force and other relevant partners, the resetting of the whole arrangement. Full training, full upskilling and the enablement through business development guidance; that has been the strategy,” the tourism minister added.