Rickey Singh, Contributor
AMID THE controversy over whether there is a "flood" or "trickle" of criminal deportees from the United States to Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries, Trinidad and Tobago last week signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the U.S. to more appropriately and effectively manage the deportee problem.
What comes to mind immediately is not whether the deportees constitute "a flood of seasoned, ruthless criminals being dumped on Caribbean societies" - as Prime Minister Basdeo Panday has claimed. Or whether it is a comparative "trickle" - the deportation of no more than one in 500 Caribbean immigrants in the U.S. - according to officials of U.S. diplomatic missions like Roland Bullen, charge d'affaires for the Barbados-based U.S. Embassy for the Eastern Caribbean.
Rather, since criminal deportation has emerged as a regional problem, why shouldn't there be a single CARICOM-U.S. pact or MOU on the issue.
Why a bilateral agreement between Washington and Port-of-Spain - even accepting its potential as a model for similar MOUs with other CARICOM states - instead of a multilateral accord with Washington. After all, the unilateral deportation of alleged criminals by the U.S., to their respective homeland in this region, has been the focus of much attention by regional Governments since the signing of the historic May 1997 "Bridgetown Accord" on "Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean" by President Bill Clinton and Caribbean leaders.
Bridgetown Accord
That accord has a specific segment dealing with "Alien Smuggling and Deportation of Criminals". And while recognising the right of each state to determine its policies on deportation of individuals, subject to the norms of international law, there are various provisions requiring such a State to fulfil certain obligations:
Among them, is the requirement to provide basic information and adequate advance notice to the designated authorities, prior to the deportation of persons deemed to be criminals and ineligible to remain in the country from which they are being deported. From Jamaica in the northern subregion, to Guyana on the South American mainland, there continues to be complaints of Governments being too frequently faced with a "fait accompli" in having to deal with deportees dumped on their soil without the agreed prior notification and provision of essential data.
In the process, not only are the rights of the deemed "criminal deportees" being violated, it adds to confusion and fear when the public is told that the rising incidence of vicious crimes, involving sophisticated weapons, have something to do with the presence of criminal deportees.
The examples of such "deportees" being hauled before the courts and convicted for alleged crimes of murder, violence and robbery, are few and far between. This is not to say that some of these deportees do not continue with their dangerous criminal habits, drug-related or else.
However, in the absence of precise data, some hard evidence, it is simply unjust to accept that all the deportees are indeed "criminals" and must be blamed for crimes that the police in this and other regional jurisdictions seem unable to curb or solve.
But back to the issue of a bilateral MOU between Washington and Port-of-Spain, as signed by Prime Minister Panday and U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, during last week's Caribbean-United States/ Europe/ Canada Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Conference, hosted by the Trinidad and Tobago Government.
Concerns
With all of the shared concerns about the problems over criminal deportees - an issue addressed as recently as the March Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government in St. Kitts and Nevis when Mr. Panday spoke about this "new wave of destructive exports", it would be useful to know if any initiative was taken, at any level within CARICOM to come up with a draft regional MOU for the U.S.
Did the Trinidad and Tobago Government consider sharing its own draft ahead of last week's conference in Port-of-Spain with an explanation that it was in the process of arranging for an MOU to be signed with Janet Reno and would welcome any suggestion? Or is it that this is not our style of business for ANY Government within CARICOM?
It seems that the Caribbean learns rather slowly from past experiences. A relevant example is the controversy over the so-called "Shiprider Agreement" on maritime drug interdiction that dominated regional media coverage for a pretty long time as the U.S. and some Governments - primarily Jamaica and Barbados - tried to resolve their differences on the issue.
Shiprider agreements
In the end, what unfortunately started out on a bilateral basis, ended up with a multiplicity of such 'shiprider' agreements, as CARICOM states became caught up in doing their own thing with Washington. Then, in the wake of the controversy involving the U.S., Barbados and Jamaica, it was finally acknowledged that there was need for a multilateral CARICOM accord with the U.S., as well as Europe, in the ongoing battles against narco-trafficking.
So, from "shiprider" to "criminal deportees", and despite all the swelling rhetoric about confronting together problems of a common nature, we may now end up with plenty MOUs with Washington on managing the problem of what Prime Minister Panday has described as "the new wave of destructive exports from the U.S. to our communities."
It is, nevertheless, good to know that Trinidad and Tobago has shared, post-facto, its "criminal deportees" MOU with Caribbean Governments and the U.S. stands ready to enter into similar arrangements with any Government of CARICOM.
In this context it may also be relevant to ask whether Jamaica had shared any information with its CARICOM partners on some aspects of its meeting last year with Attorney General Reno in Washington when the smuggling of guns and ammunition into Jamaica from the U.S. as well as the related matter of criminal deportees was discussed by a delegation led by National Security and Justice Minister, K.D. Knight.
CARICOM Governments, and by implication the Community Secretariat, simply have to foster a culture of information-sharing among them if they really hope to make a success of consensual approaches in dealing with the international community on important matters - security or else - and avoid this tendency to enter into bilateral agreements on issues that commend themselves to a multilateral framework.
It is a matter for reflection, perhaps, when the Community Council - second highest organ within CARICOM, outside of the Heads of Government Conference - meet in Barbados for two days this week, starting tomorrow to prepare for the 21st CARICOM Summit next month in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Rickey Singh is a journalist based in Barbados.
