THE WARNING, issued nearly a week ago to the Guyana Government by the American administration, puts this nation between the proverbial rock and a hard place. It was announced by the Justice Department of the United States on Friday, September 7, and then disseminated by Reuters.

It stated that as a result of Guyana’s refusal to accept more than 100 nationals ordered deported from the United States of America, the Justice Department “requires the U.S. State Department to stop granting visas to citizens, subjects, nationals and residents of Guyana unless the Government accepts repatriation of its citizens within the next 30 days.”

In the following days, as citizens tried to understand the import of this terse directive, Guyana Foreign Minister, Dr Rudy Insanally, expressed some dismay at the report. He told the `Chronicle’ that while the report does seem to suggest that “the action to impose immigration sanctions has been already taken, my discussions with the US Ambassador in Guyana have led me to believe that while there is danger of this happening in the event that agreement is not reached on this question of the deportees at an early stage, this action is not as yet formally decided upon”.

Earlier this week, the Guyana Government announced that it has established a multi-agency task force to deliberate on proposals to end the impasse between Georgetown and Washington on the question of deportees. Members of the think-tank are Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Insanally, Home Affairs Minister Ronald Gajraj and National Security Adviser to the Government Mr Feroze Mohamed, who is a former Minister of Home Affairs.

Dr Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat and Secretary to the Cabinet, told reporters Tuesday that the information provided by the U.S. authorities and the means at Guyana’s disposal for verifying it have led to much of the delays that have been a source of frustration to the Americans.

Dr Luncheon, who is also Secretary of the Defence Board, said (in so many words) that the Guyana Government has been doing its bit to aid the process of repatriation of its citizens, and that once the information was provided and the authenticity of the felons is verified, then the return of the deportees is accepted.

The directive by the U.S. Justice Department has lessened negotiation options of this country, and placed the nation in a virtual no-win situation. There is little doubt that Guyana would comply with the U.S. administration and accept its nationals. At this critical juncture of Guyana’s development, it cannot afford to provoke the wrath of the Bush administration by refusing to accept those Guyanese who ran afoul of the legal system of the United States. But the thought of this nation being forced to re-absorb some 141 nationals, who have been deemed by the Americans as “dangerous”, is almost too frightening to contemplate.

As it is, violent crime has held citizens in a vice of fear and terror over the past decade, and for several of those years, persons have been convinced that most of the cold-blooded robbery and killings that have occurred in the better-off households and business places as well as in lowly dwellings and cake-shops, have been committed by deportee criminals.

The situation, in reality, is not singular to Guyana. In 1997, senior officials of CARICOM governments raised the matter of deportees as part of a wider document on regional security concerns during talks with the President Bill Clinton and Secretary of State Ms Madeleine Albright. The American administration had promised to assist CARICOM states with specific information before deporting nationals.

Hopefully, the task force assigned to work out proposals for resolving the question of Guyanese nationals detained for deportation, will conceptualise some sort of facility that could be used as a halfway house and skills-training centre for helping those unfortunate persons to rehabilitate themselves and become contributing members of society. If such a scheme could be implemented, it would certainly reduce the incidence of violent crimes and anti-social behaviours that threaten to overwhelm this country.