DEPORTEE DEBATE: FLOGGING OLD MYTHS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRIDGETOWN 001499 SIPDIS SIPDIS SENSITIVE E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: KCRM SOCI PHUM PREL XL SUBJECT: DEPORTEE DEBATE: FLOGGING OLD MYTHS ¶1. (sbu) Summary: Objectivity continued to lose the battle against alarmism during a discussion of the criminal deportee issue at the December 4 inter-sessional meeting of the Association of Caribbean Chiefs of Police in Barbados. Local media keyed on an alarmist - and as yet unpublished - CARICOM-sponsored study by a Jamaican National Security Ministry official regurgitating tired shibboleths of the deportee debate. Luckily, the conference attendees appeared far more pragmatic, with at least two productive suggestions coming from the public portions of the meeting. Busting these pernicious myths will continue to be a focus of our PD outreach efforts. End summary. ¶2. (sbu) Regional police commissioners, judges, and other law enforcement community officials met for the annual Association of Caribbean Chiefs of Police meeting December 4 in Bridgetown. The event, which included both open and closed sessions, addressed a range of topics. The conference chair, Barbados police commissioner Darwin Dottie, used his opening remarks at the plenary to focus attention on the need for additional training and cooperation among Caribbean law enforcement agencies in order to get a handle on rising crime in the region. His remarks received good, balanced reporting in local media. ¶3. (sbu) By contrast, a two-hour panel discussion on the criminal deportee issue was much more contentious, and received much more unbalanced reporting. The primary combatants on the issue were the Embassy and Dr. Ann-Marie Barnes, who was presenting in her capacity as a CARICOM researcher but also spoke in her capacity as a (as presented) senior advisor to the Ministry of National Security of Jamaica. Dr. Barnes' presentation was a read-out of her CARICOM-funded, and as yet unreleased, study of Jamaica, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. The study's findings implied (but did not state) a strong causal link between increases in deportations and regional crime. ¶4. (sbu) The study also highlighted the social problems of reintegration of deportees, raising open-ended questions about the fate of those returned and hinting at a causal link between deportation and unemployment levels, poverty, and the like. It also concluded that deportees are much more likely to be repeat criminal offenders than the local norms. ¶5. (sbu) Fortunately, Emboff had at hand the recently-published World Bank/UNODC study from March, 2007 (available at www.unodc.org/pdf/world%20bank%20C&V%report.p df),which also covered Jamaica as a case study, and the findings of which directly contradicted virtually every one of Dr. Barnes' unpublished findings. Emboff used the report and the opportunity to try to bust the most pernicious myths surrounding deportees, and to remind the group of the USG's recent commitment to address reintegration through the IOM program. ¶6. (sbu) The assembled audience asked practical, focused questions about the reintegration program and next steps, lending a cordial and professional tone to the symposium. A leading judge in Barbados even proposed to the group that the countries of the region needed to do more to amend existing criminal codes to allow judges to consider out-of-country past criminal records during sentencing for deportees convicted of crimes. Dr. Barnes used the Q and A session to explain to the assembly that Jamaica had rejected the IOM proposal and referred it back to CARICOM for further action. ¶7. (sbu) More disappointingly, though hardly surprisingly, local media ran Dr. Barnes' heretofore unpublished study verbatim and uncritically, conveniently omitting the countervailing evidence form the published World Bank/UN study. One Barbados daily ran her findings under the heading "Spike in Crime Linked to Rise in Deportations". A local radio station, meanwhile, ran Dr. Barnes' findings followed by an anecdote of a particular deportee having trouble reintegrating into Barbadian society. ¶8. (sbu) COMMENT: Law enforcement professionals in the region seem to want to focus on the practical aspects of deportees and crime - how to integrate them, how to know when they arrive, how to make sure repeat offenders or dangerous arrivals are appropriately screened and dealt with. The media, meanwhile, along with some politicos, do not have a particular interest in the facts or in who is doing what to help address the key concerns of deportees who need help to reintegrate. Sadly, many here prefer wallowing in victimization and blaming the U.S., U.K. and Canada for crime in the Caribbean. Breaking through this media and governmental wall of hyperbole remains a daunting task, and will continue to be a focus of our PD outreach efforts in the eastern Caribbean. BRIDGETOWN 00001499 002 OF 002 HOWARD