`I would like to get on my feet again if I can change my money and get me a nice clean shave, try to get me a little room for a rent and go look me a job' - Stephen Bradford

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, (CMC) - Some Guyanese deported from the United States appear to be having a rough time resettling in their homeland, if the account of one of those recently sent back after more than two decades in the U.S. is anything to go by.

Stephen Bradford, 45, was deported last Saturday -- the first time he returned to Guyana in 21 years -- and is trying to survive out on the Atlantic Ocean seawall because he has no relatives, no job and no money.

"I cannot help you right now 'cause I need some money too. My hands are out too, alright have a great day," was his brisk reply to the street boy peeping through the wall of a Georgetown cafeteria.

Out of 113 deportees, whose return was pending for at least three years until their nationality was recently confirmed as Guyanese, Bradford was among five that flew in on a commercial flight.

Another batch of 15 flew into Guyana Tuesday aboard a U.S.-government chartered

Gulf Stream plane.

Bradford's plight mirrors the concerns many Caribbean governments have repeatedly raised with the U.S. that many deportees have no family ties in their native countries to resettle comfortably.

He eagerly wants to turn a new chapter of his life and leave behind pages of gang violence and several convictions ranging from fighting to possession of marijuana and robbery.

"I would like to get on my feet again if I can change my money and get me a nice clean shave, try to get me a little room for a rent and go look me a job," he said in a rich American accent.

"Job ain't gonna be no problem because I have trades...all I need is a voltmeter, better known as a test-meter," says the trained electrician.

Ever since stepping off the plane Saturday night with four others, he said he has been sleeping and bathing during high tide before slipping into the clothes he left the detention centre of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) with.

The Government has said an assistance package is available to help deportees resettle but for those like Bradford, he has not heard of any such assistance package before.

Bibi Shadick, Minister of Human Services and Social Security, disagrees however, that the Government must go out of its way to tell the deportees that they can get two meals and nightly accommodation at a Government-run night shelter in Georgetown.

"We are not going to look for a man who was deported and living in the Corentyne and go tell him that 'you can come to us' because we don't do that for ordinary Guyanese because they all find out and they come," she told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

Though her ministry is willing to lend a helping hand, she says little can be done if the Home Affairs Ministry, which is responsible for internal security, asks for welfare officers to interview the deportees.

A senior police detective, on condition of anonymity, said no welfare officer is on hand at the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters to brief deportees on their arrival about possible aid packages.

Carrying about a six-inch long scar on his abdomen and a tattoo on his right arm as symbols of loyalty to the Manhattan-based Savage Cause gang, Bradford believes deportees may have to choose between a rock and a hard place if authorities do not come to the rescue of people like him.

"We are not trying to go that way, all we need is help, just give us a little shelter, give us time to get on our feet and we'll leave.

"I am trying to do the right thing here but if the right thing ain't gonna work. One thing going to lead to the other and I hope it don't happen that way because one got to eat...a hungry man is an angry man," he says.

Mindful of widely held fears in Guyana and across the Caribbean that deportees will trigger an upsurge in violent crime, Bradford does not want to resort to crime as a form of livelihood.

Handicapped without any identification and money in his pocket to get a new passport, he still has a crumpled cheque from the Ekowah County District Detention Center for US$28.95 that they found on him when he was nabbed.

Like most Guyanese who have left these shores for more than 10 years, Bradford never bothered to apply for American citizenship because he only knew of that possibility after he was arrested.

If he had his way, he would prefer to remain in a U.S. jail than to return to Guyana where he runs the risk of rummaging through garbage for a meal.

Looking back at life since he left the suburban Georgetown neighbourhood of Kitty, he said: "Believe me, if I can live it over, I will do it different."

But the U.S. government is very firm that foreign nationals will be deported after completing jail terms for crimes committed on American soil.

"My Government is prepared to work with the Government of Guyana on monitoring and parole type devices that may be useful to the Government of Guyana in keeping track of these gentlemen as they return to Guyana," U.S. Ambassador in Georgetown, Ronald Godard said.