Athaliah Reynolds, Staff Reporter

WITH Britain's Prime Minister Gordon Brown's recent commitment to deport 4,000 prisoners in the next year, Jamaica can again brace itself for the mass relocation of deportees from that region.

Prime Minister Brown was yesterday quoted in the U.K. press as saying his government intends to double the number of foreign convicts to be removed by December, which was previously targeted at 2,000.

"We expect to deport 4,000 foreign nationals who have previously been in our prisons," he said. "I want a message to go out. If you commit a crime you will be deported from our country."

Mr. Brown's announcement came just a day after Ann-Marie Barnes, chief technical officer in Jamaica's Ministry of National Security, addressed the United States Committee on Foreign Affairs, subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, in the U.S. House of Representatives, Washington D.C.

Ms. Barnes,who is also Caribbean Community (CARICOM) consultant on criminal deportation, speaking on behalf of CARICOM and Latin America, listed several recommendations for the U.S. and other developed territories.

She highlighted the notion that "mass deportation of criminal offenders to Latin America and the Caribbean constitutes one of the greatest threats to security in the region."

She said: "Each year, thousands of convicted felons are returned from the United States and, while the vast majority may have been stripped of their material possessions, their propensity to criminality remains intact."

Ms. Barnes also reiterated that the constant deportation of large numbers of criminals from the developed nations to lesser-developed countries does not necessarily solve the problem of security and crime but rather transfers the problem to other geographical locations.

Procedural guidelines

She, therefore, recommended the establishment of procedural guidelines that would assist in streamlining the deportation process "with due regard for the interests of both deporting and receiving countries".

Ms. Barnes also called for: "A review of the legislative framework that governs the deportation of long-term residents, with a view to more appropriately balancing the interests of the deporting country, the individual being deported, the best interests of children, and the long-term impact on receiving countries."

She also proposed that larger countries provide technical and financial resources to support social reintegration and law enforcement programmes in receiving countries.

In 2006, the number of persons deported to Jamaica declined by 9.5 per cent, moving from 3,319 in 2005 to 3,004, according to the 2006 edition of the Economic and Social Survey Jamaica.

athaliah.reynolds@gleanerjm.com