Grounded farm worker wants end to vaccine mandate

For more than a decade, Marcus* has been a participant of the Canadian Overseas Employment Programme. At this time of the year, the 37-year-old would be making preparations to depart Jamaica for the North American country, where he would work on a farm until year end.

However, the requirements that persons entering Canada need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 has meant that Marcus remains grounded.

Marcus, although in need of the income that he would get from participating in the farm work programme, contends that he has no intentions of getting vaccinated based on his religious beliefs. He feels that it is high time that countries like Canada and Jamaica follow the United Kingdom and remove the vaccination mandate. He said that his employers in Canada are willing to accept him, but he is unable to travel on the farm work programme due to a vaccination mandate imposed by Jamaica.

"It is so unfair because unvaccinated can come into Jamaica every day and you are saying that the country that I am going to, that is willing to allow me to come in and quarantine and then pay me to be in quarantine, I can't go there. I am not willing to take the vaccine because of my religious reasons and I have seen it affect persons, so no, I am not taking that chance," Marcus told THE STAR.

Collette Risden, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, said that given the existing travel restrictions, farm workers will have to be fully vaccinated before they are allowed to travel.

"If the United States and Canada says that everybody entering their country must be vaccinated, how can we put him in the programme if he is unvaccinated? No airline is going to accept you to fly without you showing proof of vaccination, so if you don't have that proof of vaccination, what's the sense of putting him on the programme? That's the requirement, and it's not the Ministry of Labour and Social Security that has a vaccination policy, there is a travel requirement to enter many countries that you have to be vaccinated," Risden insisted.

Marcus told THE STAR that he is highly trained in machine operations, and it would prove difficult for his employer to secure another individual in time for this year's harvest. He also said that the farm work programme provides his bread and butter, and argues that the vaccination mandate is robbing him of a chance to provide for his family.

"I have a lot of dependents, especially in my immediate family. Farm work is the only work I do, so I don't know what I am going to do now because I am not taking the vaccine," he said.

Jamaica has administered at least 1,379,636 doses of COVID vaccines so far, with approximately 23 per cent of the targeted population taking the jab.

* Name changed to protect identity.