Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07BRIDGETOWN1499
2007-12-07 15:39:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Embassy Bridgetown
Cable title:  

DEPORTEE DEBATE: FLOGGING OLD MYTHS

Tags:  KCRM SOCI PHUM PREL XL 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO6521
RR RUEHGR
DE RUEHWN #1499/01 3411539
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 071539Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5870
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
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


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media keyed on an alarmist - and as yet unpublished -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