GOH MAY BE READY TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILTY FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L PORT AU PRINCE 000196 SIPDIS SIPDIS STATE FOR WHA/EX AND WHA/CAR S/CRS SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD STATE PASS AID FOR LAC/CAR INR/IAA WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/13/2017 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL HA SUBJECT: GOH MAY BE READY TO ASSUME RESPONSIBILTY FOR CRIMINAL DEPORTEES Classified By: AMBASSADOR JANET A. SANDERSON, REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D). ¶1. (C) Summary: After years of complaining of the burden of criminal deportees the USG returns to Haiti, the GoH now may be ready to assume direct responsibility for re-integrating them. Yves Stanley Joseph, Chief of Staff for the Ministry of Interior (MOI),says he will soon recommend to the GoH that it gradually take over the re-integration of criminal deportees that is currently managed by the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) deportee re-integration program. Joseph wants to replace IOM with GoH offices and with more cost-effective GoH-hired contractors. In light of past GoH complaints about USG "dumping" of deportees into Haiti, Post views positively his intention to encourage the GoH to assume more responsibility for criminal deportee re-integration, although we cannot predict whether the GoH will accept Joseph's proposal, or, if it does, whether it will manage re-integration more effectively than IOM. End summary. ¶2. (C) Poloff on February 7 met with Yves Stanley Joseph, the Chief of Staff for the Ministry of Interior (MOI) to explore the GoH willingness to financially support IOM's deportee re-integration project. Joseph responded that he was already proposing the idea to the GoH. According to Joseph, he is preparing a recommendation that the GoH include funds in its FY '09 budget, which begins in October 2008, for the establishment of a Welcome Center (Centre d'Accueil) and a Bureau of Deportee Service. He envisions the Welcome Center as providing a structured reception for all repatriated persons, (deportees and clandestine migrants),while the Bureau of Deportee Services (BDS) would focus its attention on re-integration of criminal deportees. Both agencies would be under the Office for National Migration, which is within the MOI. ¶3. (C) Whereas IOM's program focuses on the economic re-integration of deportees, the BDS would focus on their social re-integration into families or with relatives. Joseph believes that the BDS should have an economic re-integration component, which he thinks should be outsourced to an NGO less costly than IOM as the GoH becomes more proficient in understanding the factors that increase the success of their economic re-integration. ¶4. (C) Joseph said he would recommend outsourcing the economic aspects of deportee re-integration - in which the GoH lacks its own expertise - to GoH-hired contractors. Joseph believes that their social rather than economic re-integration is more effective against criminal deportee recidivism. In fact, the MOI has begun to implement a policy of releasing criminal deportees of concern only to family members or relatives. The MOI then periodically contacts these relatives to check up on the deportee's status. If the GoH agrees to establish a Welcome Center and BDS, Joseph proposed cutting IOM's funding by 25% a year - i.e., eliminating funding within four years. ¶5. (C) Joseph cautioned that incorporating a deportee program as an additional item in the GoH budget would require increased commitments from international donors, who currently fund a large proportion of the GoH budget. ¶6. (C) Comment: At the moment, we cannot predict whether the Ministry of Interior will accept Joseph's proposal to assume greater direct responsibility for deportee re-integration. In principle, however, post supports a gradual GoH assumption of more control over criminal deportee re-integration. It is a welcome change from past GoH complaints, presented frequently to Embassy officials until recently, that Haiti should not be forced to accept Haitian nationals convicted of crimes in the U.S. End comment. SANDERSON