Andrew Smith, Photography Editor

An estimated 11,000 Jamaicans live and work in the Cayman Islands, making up about 22 per cent of the country's population.

For Jamaicans at home, the perception is that those who make the trip to the British colony with a booming economy are doing well. But for those who live there, especially those who work in ordinary jobs, such as store clerks and domestic help, life is not likely to be a bed of roses, and sometimes it is living hell.

They often suffer discrimination and abuse, may receive lower-than-contracted wages; and, if they complain, sometimes face the threat of being thrown out of the country.

Authorities support employers

"It doesn't matter what's in writing," says Gordon Barlow, an Australian-born newspaper columnist and human rights activist in an interview a fortnight ago. "All authorities are on the side of the employers and Caymanians."

Adds Captain Robert Hamaty, Kingston's honorary consul in the Cayman Islands: "There are also those prospective employers who give the Immigration Department one figure regarding the salary/wage of a prospective employee. However, upon landing, the individual receives a significantly different package."

If people like Barlow and Hamaty were to be accused of exaggeration, their assessment of the treatment of low-level foreign employees generally, and Jamaicans in particular, coincided with an assessment done five years ago for the British Government. At the time, the number of Jamaican workers in the Cayman Islands was half the current figure.

"Those working on low salaries (especially Jamaicans) suffer the most as they are reportedly often victim to unfair employment practices (abuse, not being paid on time, having salaries docked) and yet have no recourse out of fear of losing their work permits (which they have to pay for)," the report commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Department for International Development (DfID) said.

"Some of them have low literacy rates and are unaware of their labour rights," the report added. "As a result, employers can often pay them less than is written in their contract. The fact that there is no legal minimum wage exacerbates the problem."

Senior Caymanian officials were unavailable for comment for this article and in some cases, written questions were not responded to. However, many people interviewed in George Town, the capital and elsewhere in Grand Cayman say that not much have changed since that report.

In fact, in some respects, they suggest, the situation has not only become tougher but there has also been a rise in anti-Jamaican sentiment, which was played out in the country's press last year when a visa requirement was also put in place for Jamaican visitors to the islands.

"It's unfair how they treat us," said a Jamaican domestic worker from St Elizabeth, who requested her name be withheld for fear of reprisals. "It's not a good feeling; it's like we're not welcome here."

But Jamaicans - faced with high employment at home and prospects earning Caymanian dollars which exchange at J$80 to Cay$1 - continue, when possible, to make the trek.

Sometimes, however, expectations are unmatched by reality and it is not entirely uncommon for women to be duped about jobs they are heading into.

Father Sean Major-Campbell, former rector at the St. George's Anglican Church in George Town has experience in such situations.

"I have personally met individuals who were fooled into coming to Cayman for a job," he explained. "Upon landing they discovered that the job was really other domestic services which are usually associated with brothels. While it appears that bilingual practitioners are preferred for this trade, some patrons still find Jamaicans more affordable."

The country's high cost of living and especially the high cost of accommodation are areas in which Jamaican, with their expectations to save from their salaries and remit home, are often taken by surprise.

It was not uncommon a fortnight ago to visit premises rented by Jamaican workers for as much as CI$350 (J$28,000) that was at best a single room in a complex shared by nine immigrant. Rent control is minimal in the Cayman Islands.

The Caymanians allow only two children per immigrant family, partly because of limited school space. Moreover, migrant workers with children have to prove, before they arrive, that they can meet school fees, which, at private institutions can cost between CI$1000 and CI$3,000 per term, prohibitive for low-wage workers.

Many foreign workers, as this Jamaican domestic did seven years ago when she had a son, may opt to return home to have their children. "It doesn't make sense (to have your children in the Cayman Islands)," he told the Sunday Gleaner. "The child gets nothing."