The U.S. Coast Guard is accused of unlawfully detaining at least 5 Jamaican fisherman for more than a month on Coast Guard vessels in the Caribbean Sea.
The fisherman had been accused of drug smuggling and they were allegedly stripped naked and had their boat burned. Eventually, authorities transported them to Florida and charged them with drug offenses.
Those charges were later dropped.
It didn't take long before a lawsuit was launched that accused the agency of unlawfully detaining the innocent men and shackling them to the decks of the vessels.
These men were detained over accusations of cannabis smuggling.
Even if the men had been transporting some cannabis, it seems like a grave injustice against their human rights to have them treated as they were. Those men had not initiated violence against anyone else, but they themselves were essentially kidnapped and had violence inflicted upon them in a variety of ways for their peaceful but controversial actions.
The men were never charged or convicted of any drug crimes, but they were accused of having made false statements to prosecutors, and they eventually pleaded guilty and served 10 months before being deported back to Jamaica on Aug 30, 2018.
In their lawsuit the men are suing the U.S. government for violating their human rights, alleging that the government falsely imprisoned them, assaulted them, engaged in negligence, and cruel and inhuman, or degrading treatment in violation of international law. Of course, the state insists that they treat all of their suspects with great care.
The lawsuit claims that the U.S. Coast Guard is guilty of frequently filing bogus charges against fishermen or sailors to cover their tracks of often confiscating ships and arresting individuals who are traveling in international waters.
It has been reported that the Jamaican government at one point had allegedly given permission, granting a waiver for the men to be transported to Miami and charged, but Jamaican Senate members have reportedly been clashing over the issue. With the Foreign Affairs Minister claiming that she learned about the issue through the media. They claimed to have launched an investigation into the incident to get a better picture on exactly what happened.
“We have also seen a video in which the fishermen concerned cite experiences of shocking treatment during an extended period of detention that would amount to human rights abuse. The allegations are of serious concern to the ministry, as the rights of Jamaicans at home and abroad are always of paramount importance to the Government of Jamaica,” - Foreign Affairs minister, J. Smith said.
They claim to have been in contact with their consulate in Miami to better understand the situation and they are hoping that justice for the men will be delivered through the U.S. justice system. Some Jamaican leaders accused the government of failing to protect the rights of their people over this matter.
Aside from suing the U.S. Coast Guard, a constitutional lawyer, B. Samuels, has also suggested that the fishermen might consider suing the Jamaican government.
“We can’t delegate and sign off and give away the rights of our citizens in a kind of trivial way, so it is my view that the signing of the waiver would not cause the Jamaican authorities not to be responsible for the welfare of the men, so that their treatment and conditions may be blamed on the Jamaican Government,” - B. Samuels
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