DESPITE repeated assurances from the Government that Jamaicans expelled from the United States (US) would never be refused entry to their homeland, another Jamaican man has been shipped to the southern African state of Eswatini under America’s third-country nationals (TCNs) agreement.

Sixty-four-year-old Junior Alves, a Christian pastor who has lived in the US for the past 44 years, was among 11 people transported to Eswatini on Wednesday.

He is the second Jamaican sent to Eswatini by the US in recent times under its TCN agreement with that country — which it pays approximately US$5.1 million to accept them.

On Thursday Alves — speaking with the Jamaica Observer from a maximum security prison in Eswatini — described his ordeal as similar to the slave trade where people were rounded-up and taken to countries which they did not know and have no ties to.

“They are treating us like slaves. They are taking us back to the slavery days where you have no value of your own life. Basically what they are doing to us, I say it’s slavery,” charged Alves, a father of eight children with 11 grandchildren who were all born in the US.

Alves told the Observer that his ordeal began on January 11 when he was arrested in a churchyard by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents while on his way to a shop, metres from his home in Florida.

“They told me I was wanted and I asked them wanted for what,” said Alves as he recalled how he pointed out to the ICE agents that he was a community leader and pastor who was allowed to stay in the US based on a Convention Against Torture (CAT) designation he received in 2016.

According to Alves, he was arrested before 2016 based on two deportation orders, but when he appeared before the courts his lawyers successfully applied for a CAT designation for him.

Under the CAT designation the US is obligated to ban the deportation of individuals to countries where they risk being tortured.

Alves said he pleaded his case to the ICE agents who arrested him, and the officer to whom he was required to periodically report, based on the CAT designation.

He pointed out that he was initially held at a detention centre in Miramar, Florida, before being transferred to Alcatraz, “which is one of the ‘most wickedest’ jails you can ever find in the history of life.”

He said while in Alcatraz, he had a lawyer fighting for his freedom and was told that a judge had ruled that he should be released, but days ago an ICE officer told him to sign some papers, which he refused to do.

“They [then] said to me, ‘You are going to the African country,’ and I said, ‘How can you take me to a place I don’t know?’ And they said, ‘Whether you know it or not that’s where you going. And if you don’t go we are going to put you in a plastic and carry you.’ That was the exact word the man used, that he was going to plastic me like he did the Mexican them,” added Alves.

He said some 18 to 19 hours later the plane landed in Eswatini where they were met by heavily armed people who ordered them to disembark and transported them to the prison.

“Only thing these people [in Eswatini] have said to me is that they are looking to get my papers so that I can go back to my country, if my country will accept me,” Alves pointed out.

He and his wife operate a transport business and they were set to open a new office before he was arrested.

Now he has his sights set on returning to the US which he has called home for most of his adult life and where he has been involved in several community projects.

“I feed the homeless, over 250 every Saturday, I take care of the community, I look out for the people dem, I give jobs to people who are jobless… and the people I help are who they want to take away,” said Alves.

He is prepared to return to Jamaica where a sister in Kingston is his only surviving relative and while in his homeland he plans to “fight them to the end”.

In July, Jamaican Orville Etoria was among the first TCNs sent to Eswatini by the US Government.

With support from the International Organization for Migration (IOM), Etoria was repatriated to Jamaica on September 22.

In confirming that Etoria had returned to the island the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “We reaffirm that the well-being of Jamaicans overseas is a constant priority for the Government of Jamaica.”

There has been no word yet from the ministry on the Alves case.