Battling the deportees problem
Editorial
GUYANA has taken another step in its battle against the deportees being shipped here in increasing numbers from mainly the United States and Canada. It is a problem that has been causing enormous headaches for other countries in the region and Caribbean heads of government raised the issue with President Bill Clinton when they met in Barbados in 1997. The flow of the deportees has not eased since then and more and more of them are heading this way. The thorny issue caused some problems between Guyana and Canada last year when Canada Immigration authorities sneaked a bunch of Guyanese-born men, no longer wanted in that country, into Guyana on a clandestine flight. It is not fair to small countries when bigger and powerful countries dump their problems into the laps of others that can hardly cope and a resolution has to be found. Guyana has taken the option of taking its case to lawmakers in the United States, pleading to their sense of justice and fair play. This country's Ambassador to Washington, Dr Odeen Ishmael, has written some 200 leading members of the United States Congress urging them to amend the legislation of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Act to prevent the deportations. In his letter, Dr Ishmael drew the lawmakers' attention to the negative effects the deportations have on the Guyanese society. He reinforces the point that most of those being deported are more products of American society than of the country where they were born and that fair play demands they be dealt with in the country where they have stronger roots. These people had become permanent residents of the United States and have been, and continue to be, deported to Guyana after completing their sentences for crimes they committed while living in the United States, Dr Ishmael notes. Taking them back in the land of their birth would have been easier if the deportees are not who they are. If they were upright, law-abiding citizens, with skills to help in the daunting problem of nation-building, they would be assets and not a heavy burden to this country. But most of the deportees are not, and are shipped back here since the U.S., Canada and other countries where they have spent most of their adult lives, want them out because of the dangers they pose to law and order and stability there. "Some of these persons were convicted for serious crimes which included illegal trafficking and sale of illegal narcotics and crimes of violence, involving in some instances the use of weapons including firearms", the ambassador notes. "In all these cases, these persons generally had no criminal records before leaving Guyana to reside in the United States. "Many of them also left Guyana when they were young children and over the years have lost all familial and cultural connections with their homeland", Dr Ishmael told the members of Congress. He argues that the laws under which the deportees are shipped out of the U.S., raise "several moral and administrative" issues. The bigger issue, however, is the fairness involved. It certainly is not a friendly attitude and we hope those who believe in fair play in the U.S. Congress lend a keen ear to the ambassador's plea.
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