Howard Campbell, Gleaner Writer

THE Jamaican deportee, often the subject of ridicule and scorn, will receive a helping hand from a new outreach programme. Land Of my Birth (LOB) is the name of the organisation which was launched last Friday.

Its main objective is to offer rehabilitative service to deportees, who arrive in Jamaica on the last Thursday of every month.

Reverend Garnett Roper, pastor at the Portmore Missionary Church, told The Gleaner on Monday that the LOB's first session takes place this Thursday when the latest batch of deportees is expected.

"There have been initiatives of all sorts over the years. This is just a combination of all those efforts," said Reverend Roper. "We do ourselves no good by further de-humanising these people."

On Thursday, the deportees will be taken to Lockett Avenue in downtown Kingston, one of two bases from which the LOB will operate. The other is located at Laws Street in downtown Kingston.

Processing

Reverend Roper said that, on arrival, the deportees will be processed by members of the Jamaica Constabulary Force. They will also receive packages and counselling from persons affiliated to the LOB.

In the past, most deportees were taken from the Norman Manley International Airport in St. Andrew and transferred to the Central Police Station in downtown Kingston for processing. The LOB system, Reverend Roper explained, will be more sensitive.

"We are hoping to organise and standardise the process by putting a little dignity to it," he said.

Reverend Roper said he got involved in the programme after being approached by Bishop Lavern Sinclair and Minister Georgia Scarlett, who are members of the Sepher Tehillim International Prayer Outreach Ministry Inc., in New York City.

Last week, the Portmore Missionary Church organised a five-day outreach programme which Reverend Roper said was attended by over 100 deportees.

The police report that over 17,000 deportees have come into Jamaica during the past five years, mainly from the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. Many of them are from inner-city areas and are usually blamed for a subsequent rise in crime in these communities.