Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
WHILE THE United Kingdom proposes to deport all foreign criminals after they have served their sentences, the Jamaican Government is conducting a study to assess the impact of deportees on the island.
Gilbert Scott, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, told The Gleaner yesterday that deportation was an ongoing discussion with the U.K. as well as the United States and Canada.
Mr. Scott said, however, that Government was currently unable to measure the actual impact on Jamaica by deportations, such as the destabilising effect on several inner-city communities caused by certain deportees.
"That's why we are conducting the study, to get a more objective study of the real impact, everything we have right now is intuitive and not based on data," he said, noting that the study should be completed by the end of June.
TALKS TO CONTINUE
Further talks are likely to continue with the arrival in the island yesterday of Patricia Scotland, U.K. Home Office Minister responsible for the criminal justice system and offender management. Besides senior officials in the security and justice sectors, she will meet with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and Minister of National Security Dr. Peter Phillips, before leaving tomorrow.
The U.K. Government made the announcement this week, in the middle of a domestic scandal over the revelation that 1,023 foreign prisoners were released in the country without consideration for deportation. U.K. authorities are attributing the error to administrative problems.
Under the new proposal, foreign criminals will have to appeal after they have left the U.K., unless their appeal has strong human rights or asylum justifications.
