ONE FINAL COURT BATTLE: Jean Rony case set for Privy Council hearing today

ONE FINAL COURT BATTLE: Jean Rony case set for Privy Council hearing today
Jean Rony Jean-Charles reflects on his experience since returning to the country via court order some five years ago.

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – In the five years since becoming a flashpoint in the debate about immigrant rights in The Bahamas, Jean Rony Jean-Charles says he just wants to find consistent work, get key documents and stay out of trouble.

The soft-spoken Bahamas-born resident was thrust into the spotlight when Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hilton ruled in 2017 that his detention and expulsion from the country were unlawful, that he was deprived of his personal liberty, and falsely imprisoned in breach of his constitutional rights.

Jean Rony Jean-Charles said he feels lost and as if his life has been left on pause as he awaits the resolution of his legal fight.

The ruling, which was overturned by the Court of Appeal, had potentially far-reaching implications for how the country’s immigration and citizenship laws are applied.

Today, Jean-Charles’ appeal of the Court of Appeal ruling will be heard at the Privy Council, the likely final stage of a saga that has left him with an uncertain future.

“I feel like I can’t move forward in my life, I feel like I still lost,” he said during an interview with Eyewitness News yesterday.

Immigration officers arrested Jean-Charles in early September 2017.

He was flown to Port-au-Prince, Haiti on November 24th after authorities said he could not prove he was in the country legally.

Justice Hilton later ordered that the Bahamas government issue him a travel document and reimburse him for his return to the country.

Hilton ordered that he be issued legal status no later than 60 days after returning.

However, the Court of Appeal set aside the Supreme Court ruling. Sir Michael Barnett and other appellate judges said there could be no finding of a constitutional breach to his detention and deportation because of the lack of certainty over his identity.

The Court of Appeal also granted him permission to appeal their ruling to the Privy Council.

Jean Rony Jean-Charles speaks to Eyewitness News about his desire to become self-reliant if he obtains full legal status.

Jean-Charles told Eyewitness News yesterday that he is anxious for his case to be resolved.

“Things are a little better than before but its still slow,” he said about his life in recent years. “I found work, it ain’t no work around right now but I worked in Lyford Cay.”

“I have a travel document copy. It’s still the only documentation I have. (I need documentation) to get myself back together because I really want to work and I can’t really get nothing to do right now, things are tough.

“I just stay out of trouble and there is nothing to do so I stay home.”

“I think (my case), this is a chance where they (immigration) can know not everyone you see you just pick them up and treat them any kind of way. Have them in there forever, they don’t even check on them like that, you could be sick in there and don’t really care until you die and that’s when they gonna check and it’s too late.”

If he wins his case before the Privy Council, Jean-Charles said the first thing he will do is try to find a steady job so he can buy his own stuff.

“It’s hard with no documents and no papers, no one hiring you,” he said.

He said he tries to forget his experience in Haiti after he was deported.

“I is try to block it out my mind because walking through those high mountains, I almost drop off and if it wasn’t for the guy I was with to catch me I’d have fallen off. It was raining and I did fall once, my back still hurts from that,” he said.

3 comments

In reading his story, one can’t help but wonder why?!
They celebrate national flag day for a country that doesn’t care about them; and the one that accepted their illegal parents – their birth, they give no amount of humble gratitude to…we believe Hilton erred in his ruling and should the Appellate court in Great Britain concur, we would have but two choices: 1) remove ourselves from the privy council in an effort to rescue some semblance of our sovereignty or; officially declare our country a failed state and open to all and sundry to come and go as they please, without due regards to the rules of law…

Let true Justice ALWAYS reign. If the state breached his Constitutional rights they must account for the same…and pay…if they did not breach his rights…then good for the State in doing the right thing.

The Rule of Law dictates that we are ALL subject to the law and NO ONE…is above it: Individiuals nor the state.

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