New concerns over criminal deportees

National Security Minister, Victor La Corbiniere, has said that an increasing number of criminal deportees has become a matter of concern for local authorities.

La Corbiniere has disclosed that the deportees are involved in very serious criminal activities overseas.

He described them as basically being trained criminals.

“I am sure that some of these deportees have international links, be it with ISIS or other bodies or agencies, but they have criminal links that are very worrisome,” the Minister declared.

He asserted that the issue was one that authorities here have to address.

However La Corbinierre explained that the matter of resources and capacity sometimes looms large.

“You cannot follow all of these people around and put all the resources you have into that area, but we are doing as much as we can,” he said.

The United States has deported thousands of convicted criminals to the Caribbean annually since 1996.

That’s when the US Congress mandated that every non-citizen sentenced to a year or more in prison must be kicked out of the country upon release.

In all, is is estimated that the US is responsible for about three-quarters of the Region’s returning criminal deportees, with the United Kingdom and Canada accounting for most of the other ex-cons arriving in the Caribbean.

Caribbean governments had argued that the deportees were contributing to an escalation of crime and high levels of violence.

Washington had responded by introducing a programme to help reintegrate the deportees.

However after recording no significant success, the initiative was eventually scrapped.