Managing deportees
Editorial
Stabroek News
August 5, 2002
With the dramatic escalation of crime in recent months, the question of whether the steady stream of deportees into Guyana was contributing to the state of lawlessness was bound to arise. In recent weeks, both President Jagdeo and Police Commissioner McDonald have answered in the affirmative. Just what their evidence for the deportees’ involvement in the wave of crime is unclear. But then it is difficult to tell who the perpetrators of attacks such as the one at Rose Hall are. The police have not been successful in capturing the criminals and placing them before the courts so we are essentially in the dark about not only who the gunmen are but also their controllers and organisers. Frightening but that is the Guyana reality today.
If indeed the deportees are becoming ready additions to the underworld and the remarkably well-ordered gangs that are terrorising Guyanese, then the country needs a better-prepared response to these persons. That response is not the immediate publication of their photographs and names upon arrival in the country as Mr McDonald recently lamented that he was not getting the assistance of the media with. This newspaper discontinued that practice when erroneous information was provided with respect to a deportee from the UK. But there is an even better reason for not publishing the information.
The deportees are coming here after having served time for a variety of crimes, some extremely serious, others not so serious. By acquiescing to take these persons - some of whom have no family here and would be completely culture-shocked and disoriented - Guyana is accepting responsibility for their futures and their eventual reintegration or absorption into the society. Under these circumstances and considering the need to constrict the opportunities for them to be swallowed up by crime cartels, the last thing that should be done is to publish their photographs and personal information. That will only serve to further stigmatise them and estrange them from the society they are supposed to be a part of. It would be the equivalent of hanging a sign on them saying ‘criminal, recently released, no hope for the future’. That type of treatment would be a first class, one-way ticket into crime.
Guyana needs a different response. Two weeks ago, the Sunday Stabroek interviewed a down and out deportee addicted to drugs whose case exemplified the severe problems that many of those sent back are having. In that piece, Human Services Minister Shadick indicated that her ministry deals with deportees in a number of areas.
With the several hundred deportees who have come back in the last few years, a more comprehensive approach is required to prevent them from sliding back into crime and more importantly to help them become productive Guyanese citizens. The ministries of Home Affairs and Human Services should be allocated funds to set up a deportee resettlement programme which would assess their skills, their ability to upkeep themselves, whether they have family members here, whether they have serious medical conditions that need treating and if they are drug addicted. After that, there should be a type of debriefing and an orientation programme. Those who recently lived here and have strong family ties may be able to fend for themselves but still should not be cut off from social services.
Others who have been abroad for twenty years or so, have no family members here and are in a general state of bewilderment will need help over a longer period.
They will definitely require a halfway home until they can find a job (in the depressed economy this is no easy task), daily sustenance and perhaps counselling services. They simply must not be turned out onto the streets. That would be disastrous and perhaps many of the recent deportees have experienced this. The ministries could also be the formal conduit for dealing with foreign governments on the benefits the deportees may have accrued while abroad and to facilitate contact with their families still abroad.
There will be some hardcore criminals for whom recidivism is just a step away and there is nothing that can be done about them. They simply have to be put under close surveillance. Asking them to report to police stations is a waste of time. They won’t do it and anecdotal evidence suggests that many in this category quickly return illegally to the countries that deport them. Some in this category could also be invaluable to the police in undercover and intelligence work. They simply need to be cultivated. For the umpteenth time, the government on Saturday indicated that legislation for the monitoring of deportees and supervision of certain classes of them will be crafted after consultations. Will it see the light of day?
The policy of sending back deportees to small countries like Guyana unable to properly cope with the challenge is one that will backfire in several ways. The US and other countries will soon learn that the deportees find ways of getting back in and are further alienated from their host country, and more seriously for us, they undermine the state of security that donors spend so much money assisting countries like Guyana with.
Having succumbed to the big stick treatment from the US, Guyana and other countries in the Caribbean are now saddled with the significant burden of absorbing hundreds of these deportees. A resettlement fee per head is something that the country sending back should be pressed to provide to the receiving government along with easy access to deportees’ benefits and facilitated contact with their families. In the absence of this, the Guyana government has to be smart about handling the deportees. Don’t shut them out and consign them to a life of crime and further problems. Find a way to make them productive citizens.