Deportees remain unmonitored despite urgent legislation
300 have returned over past year
By Patrick Denny
Stabroek News
May 27, 2003
Eight months after the National Assembly hurriedly enacted so- called 'Deportee' legislation, the police are yet to apply to the Court, through the Minister of Home Affairs, to have any of the more than 300 deportees who have arrived here over the past year put under surveillance.
The legislation provides for a deportee to be put under surveillance by the Police if he/she is deemed to be a threat to public safety. The legislation has come in for much criticism from Amnesty International, the Guyana Human Rights Association, the Guyana Bar Association and the parliamentary opposition.
Some observers tell Stabroek News that this could be the reason for its non-implementation as well as the fact that the police lack the means to properly monitor the movements of those they would want to put under surveillance.
Between November 15, 2001 and October 16, 2002, based on releases issued by the Police, 268 persons were deported back to Guyana, the majority of whom, 207, came from the United States. Thirty-seven were deported from Canada during the same period and one came from the United Kingdom and two from France. Of those returned from the Caribbean, Barbados sent back 8, Antigua 5, Trinidad and Tobago 3, Puerto Rico 1 and St Maarten 1. Three came from French Guiana.
Also based on releases issued by the Police between January 2003 and May 19, 2003, 69 persons were returned from the United States, 3 were returned from Canada, 1 each from England and Antigua and 2 each from Barbados and French Guiana. Of the 78 deportees, 41 were deported for narcotics related crimes including possession, trafficking, importing, distributing and conspiring to distribute; 6 were returned for committing arms related offences, including possession of a firearm, conspiracy with a firearm licence and robbery under arms; 1 was deported for bribery and alien smuggling; 1 for murder, from French Guiana, and 1 for conspiracy to commit murder from the USA.
In October, Police Commissioner (ag) Floyd McDonald told a press conference that the Police had evidence of the involvement of some deportees with local criminals in the commission of certain types of crime that had occurred in the crime wave that has engulfed the country since February 2002.
Observers have told Stabroek News that even though few if any of the persons arrested or killed in Buxton, widely believed to be the base from which most of the criminal activity in Georgetown and the lower East Coast Demerara is launched, are deportees, their influence cannot be discounted.
They point out that kidnappings and the methods used in the commission of some of the other crimes, especially those that are drug related, are indications of the influence of some of criminal deportees.
Other observers, while not denying the influence of the deportees, question the extent of their involvement pointing out that it is widely felt that most of the deportees quickly return to North American cities from which they are deported.
Those that remain are unlikely to be involved in any major criminal activity because of the lack of resources. However, they feel that some study should be done to definitively ascertain the degree of involvement of the deportees in crime, the number of those who are still here and whether they are productively employed.
Meanwhile, the Guyana and US governments are still in discussions on a memorandum of understanding on what level of assistance the US government would provide to assist in the re-integration of the deportees into local society and what assistance could be provided to the law enforcement agencies to assist in the surveillance of more dangerous deportees.
