Thread: More Than 11,000 Jamaicans Deported, Commish Concerned

More Than 11,000 Jamaicans Deported, Commish Concerned

Published:Thursday | October 8, 2015

Carl Williams says he has concerns about the influx of deportees, especially those convicted for serious crimes.

More than 11,000 Jamaicans were deported from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and several other countries between 2010 and last year.

Amid the controversy over the proposed prisoner transfer deal between Jamaica and the UK, data from the Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica show that 11,886 Jamaicans were deported for various criminal and immigration violations over the 5-year period.

The figures show that 5,853 or nearly half that number were deported from the US followed by the UK, which sent back 1,659 Jamaicans.

Canada was next, deporting 1,055 Jamaicans.

A total of 3,319 were deported from various other countries.

A breakdown of the data shows that there has been a steady decline in deportees coming from the US, moving from 1 thousand 371 in 2010 to 833 last year.

It was a similar story with the UK, as the number of Jamaicans who were deported from that country dipped from 458 in 2010 to 290 last year.

However, despite this, Police Commissioner Dr Carl Williams says he has concerns about the influx of deportees, especially those convicted for serious crimes.

While indicating that he is not very worried about those persons deported for immigration violations, Williams says he is concerned about the return of thousands of criminals.

http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/n...mish-concerned

There's a bunch of Guyanese living in the US too. I've read that half of the population has left and most live in the US.

US dumps 26 convicted criminals into Guyana

February 4, 2015 By GuyanaTimes

Around 26 deportees from the United States arrived in Guyana on Tuesday after serving time for various crimes.

The convicted criminals came onboard a DC 9 World Atlantic flight, which touched down at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport around 14:00h.

After clearing immigration, the deportees were shuttled to Georgetown to the Criminal Investigation Department where they were processed before being released.

Only recently, Deputy Chief of Mission of the US Embassy here, Bryan Hunt told this newspaper that fewer convicted criminals have been deported from the US over the past five years –something Caribbean leaders had fought Washington on since 2002. Between 2008 and 2013, a total of 1035 persons were deported here, 803 of whom were non-criminals.

On a much broader scale, the US has deported thousands of convicted criminals to the Caribbean annually since 1996, when Congress mandated that every non-citizen sentenced to a year or more in prison must be kicked out of the country upon release.

In all, the US is responsible for about three-quarters of the Region’s returning criminal deportees, with the United Kingdom and Canada accounting for most of the other ex-cons arriving in the Caribbean. It is a phenomenon that also afflicts many parts of Central America, where street gangs that grew out of Los Angeles spread to the Region through massive deportations. Brutal and powerful, one such gang, the “Maras” are blamed for rampant violent crime, extortion and, more recently, acting as enforcers for drug cartels.Exacerbating crime

Some years ago, Caribbean Governments had said that deportees were exacerbating crime in nations with high levels of violence. The US, in attempting to defuse tensions, had introduced a programme to help reintegrate deportees, but the programme, which was coordinated by the International Organisation for Migration, recorded moderate success and was scrapped. Some Caribbean countries such as Guyana had also enacted laws, which gave lawmen the power to monitor criminal deportees.

Hunt said that the number of Guyanese being deported from the US has been spiralling downwards over the past few years.

He said that the numbers have always been tremendously small. “A vast majority of Guyanese who leave the United States end up doing so voluntarily and are not deported,” he noted.

According to the US Department of Homeland Security, there has been a decreasing trend from 2008 to 2013 in the number of persons who were deported from the US back to Guyana.

Statistics on the US agency’s website revealed that in 2008 some 508 persons were sent back, while 492 were deported in 2009.
The following year saw 428 Guyanese deported back to Guyana and 411 in 2011. Approximately 360 persons returned home in 2012 and 292 the following year. The figure for the year 2014 was not yet available. These persons were deported on a criminal/non-criminal basis.

http://www.guyanatimesgy.com/2015/02...s-into-guyana/

Demographics

The New York City Metropolitan Area is home to the largest Guyanese population in the United States.^[3]

The United States has the highest number of Guyanese people outside of Guyana. The Guyanese-American community consists basically of people of Afro-Guyanese and Indo-Guyanese origins.^[4]

As of 1990, 80 percent of Guyanese Americans lived in the Northeast. A large concentration of them can be found in the neighborhoods of Richmond Hill, Queens,^[2]Irvington, New Jersey, Orange, New Jersey, East Orange, New Jersey, Flatbush, Brooklyn, East Flatbush, Brooklyn, Rockland County, New York, Schenectady, New York.^[2]

The Guyanese Americans students vary their English accent, depending on whether they are at home or at school. In schools, Guyanese students learn to speak English with an American accent. At home, however, tend to speak with an accent of Guyana. Some Indo - Guyanese Americans, in addition to speaking English, also speak Hindi. The Indians have religious ceremonies at their houses monthly and they attend a temple. The Indo-Guyanese who are Christian attend a local church but there are a lot more Hindus than Christians.

They have various centers for Bhajans.^[4]

More info @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyanese_American

However, despite this, Police Commissioner Dr Carl Williams says he has concerns about the influx of deportees, especially those convicted for serious crimes.

It is too bad that they don't want their criminals back. they made - they can keep them. JMO