WHEN CARIBBEAN Community Heads of Government gather in Guyana next month for a special retreat, hosted by President Bharrat Jagdeo, the primary focus of their work agenda is expected to be improvement of governance, with emphasis on moving barriers to the implementation of decisions to generate better appreciation of the region’s economic integration movement.
But a recent development suggests that they may have to find time to deal with an old, sensitive problem: That of ‘criminal deportees’ to the Caribbean from the United States of America and Britain. In the past six months, at least 2,000 such Caribbean nationals have been sent back to the region by just the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
While every nation has the right to return nationals to their countries of birth, having been found guilty of committing criminal acts, the US authorities have an obligation to first engage the governments of this region, in the spirit of cooperation to which they claim commitment.
At a time when the region as a whole is afflicted by a spreading criminality that’s often associated  with narco-trafficking and gun-running — both of which are linked to demands in the capitals of North America and Europe — the dumping of 2,000 criminal deportees on the doorsteps of Caribbean countries is hardly a development to inspire mutual cooperation.
Current CARICOM chairman, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas of Grenada, said that the Community would have to continue to appeal to the developed nations, in particular the USA and Britain, for a reversal of their current policy on ‘criminal deportees’.
As noted by PM Thomas, his own country, as well as other member states of CARICOM “are without the adequate means, such as housing, counselling and monitoring to sufficiently respond to the socio-economic impacts of addressing the needs of deportees…”
The deportees are generally individuals who have served  prison terms for convicted crimes, and in a number of cases, among them are Caribbean nationals who have been living in the USA for many years and have little, if any, family connections back in their respective countries of birth.
“Alien smuggling and deportation of criminals” was one of the key issues under the theme of ‘Justice and Security’ that formed part of the significant accord on ‘Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean’, signed between the governments of the Caribbean Community (plus The Dominican Republic) and the USA back in May 1997, when then President Bill Clinton and the region’s leaders held their historic summit in Barbados.
Current US Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, would be quite familiar with that ‘Bridgetown Accord’.  It is high time for a review of the extent of implementation or disregard for the provisions of that so-called “Partnership for Prosperity and Security.
Perhaps Prime Minister Thomas, as current chairman, and President Jagdeo as initiator and host of the coming special summit of Heads in Guyana, should ensure that arrangements are made to discuss the need for an urgent review by the governments of North America and the UK of their policy on criminal deportees.
In the latest batch  of some 2,000 ‘criminal deportees’ sent to the Caribbean by the USA over the past six months, the highest number, 1,066, were sent to The Dominican Republic, followed by Jamaica with  528,  while Trinidad and Tobago accounted for 125;  Belize, 74; The Bahamas, 65; and Guyana, 64.
Latin American countries had to bear the greatest burden in having to deal with over 88,000 criminal deportees from the USA during the last six-month period under review.