Wrong place, time for Jamaican national

Border closures due to the Covid-19 pandemic prevented the immediate deportation of a Jamaican woman who became the first person charged for breaking the nightly curfew imposed in Barbados.

“You have to abide by our rules and regulations. Curfew is the easiest thing to abide by and if you can’t abide by the curfew, you can’t stay. You got to go,” Chief Magistrate Ian Weekes told Christean Bridgette Beacon, from Kingston, Jamaica.

The 23-year-old Beacon, who has no fixed place of abode here, had pleaded guilty to remaining outdoors along Government Hill, St Michael between the hours of 8 p.m. and 6 a.m. without a reasonable explanation.

Sergeant Theodore McClean said police were patrolling when they saw Beacon around 9:40 p.m. She was stopped but was unable to given a satisfactory account for being on the road during the curfew.

When Beacon arrived at the Grantley Adams International Airport on March 11 and was granted a six-month stay, she gave immigration Hopewell, St Thomas as the address where she was staying.

“She did not stay there for long and at present she has no fixed place of abode or the financial means to sustain her stay on the island,” the prosecutor revealed.

That information seemed to baffle the chief magistrate who stated: “Now this got me beat.” He asked the CARICOM national to explain what she was doing in Government Hill at that hour when she gave a St Thomas address.

“My friend that link me up in Jamaica . . . she always like ‘Shelley you have to come to Barbados. Barbados is a nice place, they have money there.” So I said what, I’ll try. I was here last year but I went back home because of my baby. Mi stay in April and I leave in late June, 2019,” the woman said.

She went on say that she was at an apartment on Government Hill when she heard a voice say ‘look outside, look outside, look outside’.

“So I said look outside, look outside? So I shift the curtain and looked. It was a police jeep outside. He said ‘Do you know Shelly?’ I said I’m Shelly, I’m Shelly.”

She said she then gave police her correct name.

Beacon, whose time in the country comes to an end on October 28, said she was asked: “So do you have a taxi to go by the airport? I said no sir could you help me ‘no, no, no, no, no take a taxi’. I did not have no taxi money so I decided to walk and I started to pull my pulley and walk.”

Chief Magistrate Weekes told the woman who said she did not like the country “anymore” that, it was her prerogative.

“I will send you back. If you ain’t like it here and we have solid rules in place and you don’t want to abide by them well you got to go back. We will turn you over to immigration authorities and they will return you to Jamaica because we can’t have everybody running around. You are a guest. If guests can’t follow the rules, we in trouble.

“You have to abide by our rules and regulations. Curfew is the easiest thing to abide by and if you can’t abide by the curfew, you can’t stay. You got to go,” the Chief Magistrate said.

However, that deportation order was stayed as well as the sentence as Jamaica closed its air and seaports to incoming passenger traffic on March 21, allowing only outgoing passengers and cargo.

The judicial officer then had to remand Beacon to Her Majesty’s Prison Dodds until April 29. “Right now we can’t send you home. When immigration ready we will send you out.” fernellawedderburn@barbadostoday.bb