THE EDITOR, Sir:YOUR FRONT page caption of The Gleaner Saturday, June 12, 2004, "Deportee deal" is rather disturbing.
Here we find the British Government negotiating with prisoners who have been incarcerated in its prisons, for various offences, and giving them the option of a reduction of prison sentence providing they agree to be expelled to Jamaica. Reports are that about 2,400 Jamaicans are in British prisons.
We ask the British authorities to "wheel and come again". The proposal is fraught with ever increasing dangers. It is not beyond the concept of the British Government, as an ex-colonial power, to negotiate with the Jamaican authorities some meaningful investment initiative, allied with training in skills so that there is a chance to be engaged in gainful practices.
These "exportable" people gained their craft in their malpractices in the UK, not in Jamaica. I recall the days when many of these people, or their parents, were tacitly encouraged to fill the vacancies in Britain's undermanned industries, after the last war. Modern technology has replaced the need for their services. Now they are being kicked out with lack of training and victims of racial neglect.
Some few of us, like myself, who had the benefit of a good Jamaican education were able to build on this foundation from the British education opportunities, rise above the prejudices of racism and return home as useful citizens.
I appeal to the British Government to contact the Jamaican authorities, initiate training/investment exercises and give these people a chance to lead a reasonable life. Sending them home penniless, jobless, no training, no home, no connections in Jamaica is worse than the notorious Pilate who washed his hands with a loaded conscience.
I am, etc.,
A.S. BYFIELD
PO Box 4162
Boscobel, St Mary
