Guyana has received five per cent fewer deportees between January and September this year than it had received during the same period last year, but officials still fear that deportees are returning to contribute to the crime problem.

According to police statistics released on Friday, the number of deportees arriving from the United States remains relatively high, even though for the period of the report, there was a 13 per cent decrease in deportees returning from the country that boasts of its freedoms.

Between January and September last year, some 247 persons were deported for a wide rage of offences, while for the same period this year Guyana has received 234 deportees.

Barbados , Suriname , St. Kitts and Nevis , Cayenne and Puerto Rico have sent back more deportees this year for the period under review.

The majority of those who have been sent back to Guyana have been implicated in various serious crimes, including gun-related crimes, murder and narco-trafficking.

Illegal entry and forged documents also remain a source of concern.

Neighbouring Suriname deported 41 Guyanese, representing the second highest number of Guyanese returning from any country. Cayenne which deported 24 Guyanese ranked third.

As of September, Guyanese have been deported from the U.S., Canada, Antigua, Barbados, Cayenne, Guadeloupe, Suriname, St. Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, Puerto Rico, France, St. Lucia and Aruba.

For the period under review, there were no deportations this year from Jamaica , United Kingdom , Netherlands and St. Maarten.

However, last year there were no deportations from France , St. Lucia and Aruba .

Earlier this year, a U.S. commissioned report suggested that the criminal aliens were not a major factor in crime in the Caribbean , but that report invoked the fury of President Bharrat Jagdeo who declared that it was “hypocrisy”.

Newly appointed Minister of Home Affairs, Clement Rohee, in a recent interview with this newspaper, expressed the belief that Guyana 's narcotics situation may have origins outside of Guyana , given the situation posed by the number of deportees being sent to this country coupled with the international links of the drug trade.

He posited that there is increasing evidence that the deportee factor is indeed an influential one in the crime situation since deportees come back much more qualified and many have graduated outside with an array of criminal knowledge.

He stated that once they return, they transfer knowledge to people who never had that kind of exposure.

“You have the people associated with drugs with an external connection, and all this transfer of knowledge, whether it's has to do with drug trafficking (or) trafficking in illegal weapons, certainly has an external factor that we have to try to disconnect,” Rohee.

Through legislation, the police are keeping a closer tab on deportees who have to be in constant contact with law enforcement.

Many deportees often return to broken homes and in some cases because some deportees leave Guyana at an early age, they often find it difficult to integrate into society, often falling gullible to the criminal underworld.

Many deportees return to find no family members and financial support since any asset seized by the country of origin becomes that country's.

It is also difficult for some deportees to find jobs.