Jamaica is struggling to control a growing problem: North American crime.
During the past three years, almost 3,000 people have been dumped back into this Caribbean island of 2.5 million after running afoul of the law or immigration systems, mostly in Canada or the United States.
Some had simply overstayed their welcome. But police intelligence estimates say as many as a third are hard-core criminals, including those who have used North America or Britain as a finishing school for crime.
The result has been to inject a new level of sophistication and viciousness into what was already a plague of drug- and gun-related violence on the island.
For two years running, homicides have topped 600 annually.
Criminals deported from the U.S., Canada and Britain “form one of the most difficult aspects of the (violent crime) problem,” said Lloyd Service, assistant commissioner for operations with the Jamaica Constabulary Force, the national police. “They have been exposed to a different lifestyle and come back with an attitude.
“We have a lot of turf battles and guns. A lot of murders (this year) were gang-related and drug-related, and deportees figured in quite a few.”
Service isn’t alone in his assessment of the crime issue. “The deportee issue is making it very difficult for authorities here to keep control of crime,” said a diplomatic source in Canada’s high commission, linking it to battles for control of the lucrative trade in crack cocaine as well as to several gruesome murders this year.
Although deportees are only one facet of the problem, the issue is taken seriously enough that the Jamaican Parliament pushed through a controversial law this year allowing police to monitor or restrict the movements of Jamaicans sent back because of serious criminal activity.
It’s a touchy subject in Jamaica, especially because deportation is often seen as a tool used by wealthy countries to rid themselves of members of minority groups who have got into trouble.
“Frankly, I think (deportation) is a racist policy,” declared Flo O’Connor, coordinator of the Jamaican Council on Human Rights. “Authorities in North America are shifting the responsibility for rehabilitation.”
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It’s one of the few areas in which her views parallel those of K.D. Knight, Jamaica’s tough, law-and-order Minister of National Security and Justice.
“The government recognizes it has an obligation to receive its citizens that have been deported,” Knight said.
“But the government feels that where, in fact, an individual has severed the relationship between himself and his country and has adopted a new home, it is really the moral obligation of that country to see to (his) welfare.
“We are in an international struggle to deal with the problem of crime, and each country has an obligation to be part of the solution. It is wrong for developed countries to dump human beings into a Third World country like ours.
“Shipping some Jamaicans home won’t stop the violence in New York or Toronto or Washington, D.C.”
The irony isn’t lost on Jamaican officials that deporting countries are frequently shooting themselves in the foot: You can send them back to Jamaica, but you can’t make them stay.
“We find that the deportation system is a revolving door,” said a senior intelligence officer with the Metropolitan Toronto Police black-organized-crime unit. “People deported get false documents and return.”