BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

Regional police forces are reporting that international governments and law enforcement agencies have given them a commitment to help the region deal with criminal deportees.

President of the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police (ACCP) Darwin Dottin said representatives from the United States and the United Kingdom, two of the main countries deporting criminals to the region, have expressed interest in assisting with resettlement programmes.

"Most of the sending countries, it would seem, are prepared to join with the Caribbean in funding resettlement programmes for deportees," the Barbado's commissioner of police said at the end of an ACCP two-day intercessional meeting here. "It is at discussion stage I do sense from some of the comments that were made that countries are willing to move in that area and, given the global nature of crime, I don't think that it's in the interest of sending countries to have rampant criminality in neighbouring countries."

More research needed

Commissioner Dottin added tha there is no doubt deportees are involved in criminal activity throughout the region, there is agreement that more research is needed.

Dottin also indicated that some other international assistance for the region has been discussed.

Among these initiatives, he said, are border enforcement training provided by Canada; the development of a regional data base system, in collaboration with the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations; and the establishment of computer-assisted labs to assist in investigating cyber crime.

"The proposal for the development of this forensic capacity is through the establishment of a regional forensic laboratory," the ACCP noted in a release. "There was common agreement on the need to engage in further discussion on this proposal."

Dottin also admitted that police forces across the region are finding it difficult to recruit and retain officers.