Gangsters in Paradise - The Deportees of Tonga

[Applause] [Music] we are in Tonga new koala for the capital I stole as the kid we should still tape decks when I was eight then I'm uh we moved to Hawaii with my mom I was about at 11 or 12 this kid used to pick on me every day so the Monday I hit the corner got high with the Filipinos I started drinking a little bit came around at the cafeteria there he was shot on four times in the stomach that's where it all began [Laughter] got arrested um since I was a juvenile they tried to give me life but I ended up going off with four years by that time they were telling me I was getting deported I was like okay yeah only Mexicans get deported like yeah and all you get deported to I was like huh I have people tell me that are scared of me and they don't even know who I am and I'm like why are you scared I said because you're a deep 14 I'd say half of my life I regret just a dumb I was doing that was my understanding this kid I get beat by my dad I'm gonna come and dish it out on somebody else my dad was God huh at least to me he was God and since I couldn't fight god I'd fight everybody else [Music] [Music] I was born in Australia lady 6 came here in the 90s 90 money I was just started Kim D I remember coming back eles old foreign like I don't I was in Houston we were here for seven eight years then we've migrated to Museum we went to state this like gangs all around maybe it could have been different I served three years in jail they aren't even get up but just they just the port of me from jail the whole puzzle coming back was never about coming back it was more about me getting to see my family name my wife I kid I came with the police who found tired at a scope it's a shameful more dearly like ain't got a walk free the whole terminal he was looking at you're walking free with handcuffs cuz you'll be the first one there gazing of the police officer again you guys would walk go sit at the back once you go through the bet we give you possible yeah the police case because you're radiant song of this maybe you can get back up took a while like accepting the case for what it was my victim is never gonna be able to work again like knowing inside they had this guy on purpose smashed him up against the wall before we learn also just denial like it surprisingly being honest I sometimes it's bad it's a start but then you think about how free you feel I brings this feeling once you laid it all out then you don't have to select cloud immunity I don't want to like make excuses for what of what I did you know it is what it is I did it yeah I accept it good night but at the same time mom I feel like I did my punishment I being in six years and I still feel like Herman's back home like I carry [Music] I'm past all their they stuff the gate free we need between the age of 14 and 21 like in it all you want to do is share how hard you wanna be the bad guy it really is so nonsense my hope is there there nothing passes on from me to my kids that's punishment just let it be me and then a place to live when you're barely making ends meet and then it's like crabs being stuck in the buckets it's scratching Jonah get up [Music] everything here is edible and Toma is real funny because you can you can take a stick you can chop a stick off anything and you can stick it in the ground and it'll grow it'll grow sixteen acres a lot of land I'm fortunate that my father left us this when I first came home here I didn't have no money I did have nothing I had that little passport piece of paper so I didn't have no bus fare so I walked all the way from the airport to town to see my mom she was still alive at the time so basically that was a the only thing on my mind to see my mom cuz my dad passed away when I was in LA I was incarcerated usually I have a machete but I didn't bring my machete cuz I didn't want to kill me down here on Sunday you know you come down with your machete and your matter of fact if I rode my bike back and all the my neighbors they look at me they frown on me like I grew up in America so Sunday is just another day I didn't realize how different I was till I got deported I thought I'm just your typical song I'm growing up overseas but huh I left nas for so I didn't know a lot about my tone and culture just what my parents taught me so when I got to America and we moved to Los Angeles which is really the worst place to start a family it was a hard transition because all the bad things you can do in the city I did that I have a record probably just big since I was nine years old joined the gangs and I sold drugs and stole cars you know all the bad things the hardest part of the deportees what happens when they first get here is the transition back into town society we're judged before they even get to know us we have a red X against us nobody wants to hire us for work cause anything would steal something do something bad you don't have the things you have in America the necessities the vehicles the money the good clothes the nice apartment and stuff like that I think when you're brought down to your bare essentials yes that's the character that you are that's the person you are when you have nothing from rock-bottom [Music] I'm Terry Prescott and I'm like a gangster yeah I call exposed today's dinner came when I was like 13 I was with ina yeah in Congress yeah there's some one word for family when you don't have your own they give you one thing when you have your own they support day one they definite and me from New Zealand it was very sad hmm not to win the New Zealand because that's the only world on my way up in here for month nine days my whole world used to be like this now it's all coming like that and it's just me and this money can eat this reflections uh just about liking generally like things that up didn't and I can just kind of zone out on that thing about my family accuse my siblings friends that passed away since I can't change you know this is right here Scoob Allah they're like little potatoes or something then um I gotta I was doing vanilla for a while so two oldest boy he's there I'm not the oldest in my family but nobody else is here so therefore I you know I'm the boss and that's my older brother decides to come which he probably won't probably end up getting killed in Mexico tell them come back here he didn't want to but it was it's a hassle to with my uncle's took me off for them to get off the land uh he said I here to portage you don't know how to do this just trying to do the nice for that come on guys leave me alone I don't eat in your kitchen don't come and eat in mine so right now I'm yes me now awesome eighteen great acres sometimes it scares the out of me you know waking up and I'm thinking with a am I who's out here you know come outside creeping outside like off man I'm I'm in my house takes a couple seconds to get used to it [Music] I was quite lucky to have that job because when we get sent back to Tonga we don't have job and they're ready for say they don't prepare us for for this kind of news surrounding a ánewá ramen because as you can see the that so many people are very proud people and you get stopped a stick out like a sore thumb when you're one of the keepo t say you gotta stop your life all over again yeah it's pretty hard man straight up make me one like a pig doing drugs again I said talkin ice climbing I went to jail for guns and violence a I know damn well with who's around she sort of you know will make you who you you know really have liked the people around me so like the directors of my life at the moment so what they do I gotta go didn't do that I used to have heaps of people around me but I think they were all just for themself or one set a few they were like really do for me but when it comes to the important stuff in life is where they now sort of speak a another one I leave my legacy as a guy that was a cankle deported to tonight that's it end of his life sort of thing [Music] a coconut the dayand tones like an apple apple a day yeah keeps the doctor away this house here was built by my grandfather and it's all paying the onions all made by hand so I'm fortunate like like I say most of the poor teens that come here they have to pay rent or do they're pretty much homeless they have to live with somebody else oh here's my Pig yeah her name is me she said she's camera shy so haha I got to be paid oh yeah and that's rare because a lot of the things here they can't do this to their pigs so a lot of neighbors they it kind of ended me when they see me petting my big old peeing I didn't ever think I'm gonna live to be 30 and then I got incarcerated at 29 so pretty much that like stop that dead thought you know I did I hide in my head and it enabled me to be 44 and give you putting a song it's rough but one thing good about prison is if you get out alive it gives you a different perspective in life you need to learn to appreciate it and don't take things for granted never take you for granted yeah many more tea parties are getting deported this year next year the worst of the worst because Donald Trump is trying to get rid of them yeah and those are the guys that I feel like that when they get here they should have something that they can get involved in real quick if not they're gonna become their own selves again and end up back in prison or making tongue or worse this is a big problems in atonement now someone's been a land that they've been drugs been coming through us since the 70s it's nothing new it's easy for out of the 14 to get involved in that too because one of the ports used for us give you they don't think there's so many drugs like that in Tomah they think it's all only thing here's marijuana and then they're surprised when you get here they'd have all the other drugs [Music] [Music] you know the I'm the phase Commission of the term operations previously did they call the superintendent of precious a lot of our deputies while I was working in the British and some from the states and also New Zealand and also Australia when he came over straightaway yeah no hope you know they'd sell no families you know how do we say about you know the atonement people is far different from the people coming overseas how did the the contacted doing of doing prize for example TM doing of robbery they use guns and so forth you know it's very rarely before it's really really before here in Abington but now every week that we had news they still there's armed robbery robbery a robbery and I think this it's what they live from a deportees a system used by the foreign countries of how they deport should be amended they have to inform us properly so they help us in looking after the dead guy you know I think they take the detention concern much about the he is a human being his human being it she simply like a rubbish tamping everywhere you know coming to Tonga can we do some more and Tamil to teaching and I think that the rules and the regulations should be amended yeah so tell Highbury to have our flag announce you one thing about deportation they have has a lot of effect on me but I think if you look at it in a positive way it does unwrap a new path for you yeah just my own my photos and they're from jail oh my god getting a bit emotional because a big part of my life I guess I gotta just fold it up and press on this truly life is moving forward it's a feeling that I had when I first called my drumming license and my idea cuz I never had ID you know ever you know I was just running wild I still have it be the bad guy but now I wanna be a good call [Music] been here for about six years probably seen my family not even a year like out of a success had a talk with my wife she's not feeling it anymore me coming back and forth she's had enough there's name promising like saying that I'll go back and she don't want to love you so I mean laying on the keep trying if it's not gonna work it's gonna be hard channel explained I'm wishing my oldest Emily yeah he knows the full story I don't like him like I tell him what happened I did a crime like this sound bad I went to jail served my time but this is what the New Zealand government wants they want me back yeah and it doesn't get it I see now when you grow up your understand that there's loss and you abide by them or goes into other people's hands my options are wide open if I go back yeah not limited like every year I want to be on special work when I was in jail at that I've done this little course right it was like a drug treatment you know course they asked me to stay back stay back in the course it and be a mentor I ended up staying in throughout the rest of my arm my terms being in jail the first thing they tell you is just to tell the truth like if you lie about anything is little sure and then the course won't work if you like if you just tell the truth everything will just wake up people see me they think here they are they just what I want [Music] my youngest son is almost full yes really I hate that I can't be with you did I made that finning imagine if it's [Music] [Laughter] yeah this velcro opposite today that shop over there was there when I was an old wee boy and still owned by same family hello know well so there's a piece of land that my brothers cannot give me I don't feel like a gangster via mummy that cop yes when I come here for dreaming I see like three bedrooms plus upstairs sorry Oprah what to do I think it's like three to five years plan [Music] take my patch and they're all hanging at the road when I come here I'm like me but this is hurting me yeah you know my feet rondalee oh yeah Cathy Porter mm yeah can you put it with us there's Minami [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: VICE

Views: 10,392,346

Rating: 4.8413458 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, docs, interview, culture, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, journalism, vice guide, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, film, short films, movies, tonga, deportees, deportation, crystal meth, drugs, drug abuse, gangsters in paradise, gang members, criminals, crime, government, ice, new zealand, australia, vice international, global, tongan, samoan, immigration, fiji, jail, immigration custom enforcement, nationals, gangsta

Id: 72u5q-0R48A

Length: 24min 1sec (1441 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 06 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/therewillbeniccage]

Really enjoyed watching that. Cant say i thought that dealer was a particularly good sort though

[u/[deleted]]

Good documentary, and absolutely good they got deported. It seems like many of the people are doing much better on Tonga than they would have in prison in the US/New Zealand.

[u/ttocsic-]

Them islander boys are absolute units! Tough as nails, strong as an ox.

[u/balloffire]

They all seem like such good guys now!