The deportee problem
Editorial
Stabroek News
October 26, 2002
In an article in the Stabroek News on Monday it was reported that some 268 deportees had been sent back to Guyana in the past eleven months, primarily from the USA and Canada but with a few from Barbados, Antigua, Cayenne, Trinidad, France, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten and the United Kingdom. Of these, 73 were returned following convictions for possession of narcotics, 62 for trafficking, 30 for assault, 16 for robbery under arms, 15 for robbery, 19 for larceny, 7 for possession of a firearm, 5 for attempted murder/murder, 2 for discharging a firearm, 8 for sexual assault and 4 for rape.
At a press conference last week Friday Police Commissioner Floyd Mc Donald said that deportees were making a significant contribution to the present spate of criminal activity. He said the police had arrested some and had evidence of their involvement with local criminals in the commission of some of these crimes. He also said that based on an analysis of the types and sophistication of some of the crimes, the police had concluded that the deportees were an integral part of the crime problem facing the country. He did not give figures.
Following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York the US Justice Department had stepped up pressure on the Guyana government to provide travel documents for its citizens awaiting deportation in the USA. It said that some had been waiting in excess of three years. In October it imposed a visa ban on government officials travelling to the United States and this was not lifted until the Guyana government had agreed to provide the requested documentation.
The two governments have been negotiating a memorandum of understanding setting out the assistance the US government is prepared to provide to help in the re-settlement of the deportees and in helping the governments to monitor the activities of those considered dangerous. At the moment deportees, many of whom grew up abroad and some of whom have no strong family connections here, have to make their own way when they arrive in Guyana though the Ministry of Human Resources has provided some help in finding a place to stay in a few cases. It would certainly help if there were more developed procedures to help with resettlement but reports indicate that the American government is not prepared to finalise any assistance in this regard until the procedures for repatriation of convicts have been ironed out and settled.
In fairness to our government this avalanche of deportees is a most unfortunate problem to have been confronted with at a time when the situation in the country was already difficult. In an effort to deal with it the government has introduced a law to allow Guyanese convicted overseas of certain specified offences (felonies or indictable offences involving injury to a person or malicious damage to property, drug related offences, offences involving the use or possession of a firearm) who are deported to Guyana to be effectively monitored by the police. As the law stood, only Guyanese convicted of an offence in Guyana could be subjected to police supervision. Under the new law the Minister of Home Affairs may by order, upon application by the Commissioner of Police, designate a deportee as subject to police supervision if he is satisfied that it is necessary to do so in the interest of public safety or public order. Before applying to the minister, the commissioner must make an ex parte application to a judge for permission to apply to the minister giving his reasons therefor. If the judge is satisfied that it would be appropriate he shall issue a certificate to that effect. The order made by the minister may impose restrictions as to residence, reporting to the police, registration, the use or possession of firearms or otherwise as the minister deems fit.
It has been suggested that the deportee should be given a right to challenge the order and that seems fair and proper. It has also been suggested that a tribunal could be set up to make the necessary orders instead of the minister and with power to review its orders from time to time if new evidence becomes available. The legislation does show some signs of haste but one can understand and sympathise with the government's anxieties as it is under tremendous pressure to produce some results in curbing the unprecedented crime wave. Perhaps an amendment of the law could be considered, especially as it may be unconstitutional in its present form.
Longer term and if help becomes available it will surely be desirable to offer some aid in helping the deportees to acclimatise. Whatever they may have done they deserve a second chance. If they are cast adrift with no guidance in what is to many of them a strange society it is not surprising that some will gravitate to what they see as easy money, though there are several cases that show that this is not the rule and they have obtained jobs and tried to settle down.