The Government of Jamaica is being urged to assist Haitian efforts to reunite a man believed to be a Jamaican national with his family, after he was mistakenly deported to the French-speaking country from the United States in mid-December.

Jude Pierre Dambreville, who brought the plight of ‘Janel’ to public attention in a viral Facebook post, said the man appeared in the Fonds-des-Nègres community sometime around December 12, 2020.

Dambreville, speaking exclusively with Our Today on Friday (January 22), added that Janel was wandering for days in the community, sleeping on the streets before his mother, a retired nurse, offered him assistance.

“My mom said he appeared two days after I returned to the US,” Dambreville told Our Today.

In the viral Facebook post, Dambreville’s mother explained that no one could understand Janel and many in the Haitian community thought he was crazy.

Dambreville, who is actively petitioning for intervention, told Our Today that, based on his mother’s assessment of Janel, the man speaks fluent but oftentimes incoherent English, and is unable to describe how he got to Haiti or where in Jamaica he’s from.

“My mother said he appears to be mentally disabled and hasn’t been able to get much more out of him. He doesn’t know where he lived or how he got here,” he wrote on Facebook.

Still, the people of Fonds-des-Nègres, led by Dambreville’s mother, have pitched in to assist Janel with food and spare clothing.

“My mother has been feeding him, given him clothes, a place to shower and the locals have pitched in and watched over him as well,” Dambreville said.

Any effort to confirm Janel’s nationality will be met with challenges, however, as Dambreville explained the presumed Jamaican arrived in Haiti with very little documentation.

” He has no ID or any documents with him. He showed up with the clothes on his back,”

According to Dambreville, the mistaken deportation is commonplace in Haiti, as citizens often lament non-Haitians ‘appearing out of thin air’.

“This past Monday, I was having a conversation with my mother, who lives in Haiti, about the US government deporting non-Haitians to Haiti. My mother told me it’s something that happens often,” he continued.

Dambreville thanked Our Today for reaching out, hoping that Janel will be a step closer to returning to Jamaica.

Repeated attempts by Our Today to get a statement or comment from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade were unsuccessful up to the time of publication.