I WATCHED a news item on television in which the police officer reporting on a number of crimes that had been committed recently, including kidnapping and murder, was at pains to point out that in each instance deportees were involved. He went on to make the observation that the menace posed by deportees had to be dealt with.
The subject of deportees and the contribution to the escalation of violent crimes has been a topic of discussion for some time now. In most of the conversations I have overheard the consensus has been that drastic actions were needed in dealing with deportees.
In one of these conversations, an American friend of mine made the telling observation that our most revered National Hero Marcus Mosiah Garvey was a deportee. His observation cautioned against the trap of treating all deportees as if they were criminals in need of extermination.
I had the opportunity to speak at a luncheon in New York recently, attended mainly by Jamaicans, and in addressing the issue of the crime rate in Jamaica I made the point that our brethren there were making their contributions to the crime rate here by the number of their children who had been deported. That observation seemed to have made a connection that struck a responsive chord, judged by the audience response.
Jamaicans at home and abroad think of each other in very compartmental terms. Jamaicans abroad, especially in the United States, Canada and Britain, see the crime rate in Jamaica as our problem. They do not think of that as Jamaicans living abroad they have anything to do with what is happening here. Likewise, Jamaicans living in Jamaica are wont to blame the entire crime rate on deportees, forgetting that there was a real crime problem even before deportees started to arrive in large numbers.
Surely the mayhem that some deportees have become involved in since being returned to Jamaica is unacceptable. But equally unacceptable is the view that the solution to this situation is the physical elimination of the offending deportees. Something has to be done, but what? Vengeance and rage are never solutions to problems. Further, it is absolutely irresponsible for the society to see this as a problem for the police or the military to deal with.
To me the starting point of an alternative approach is that the deportees are Jamaicans, and therefore must be treated as citizens with rights. We must accord deportees their rights and demonstrate to them in a clear and practical manner that the country of their citizenship cares for and about them.
On the other hand, a strong and powerful message has to brought to the attention of deportees of the responsibilities they have to the country in which they are citizens and which country cannot throw them out. Their obligation is to build and not destroy the only country in which they can find refuge.
The first step has to be taken by groups within the country that continue to defend the rights of citizens. At the same time those groups have an obligation to use their good influence to bring to the attention of those whose rights they defend, their obligations to the country that accords them rights as citizens.
While these issues can be stated clearly and simply, they are not that simple to implement in a practical and effective manner. Yet a start must be made in the direction indicated. Vengeance stalks the land. The solution to the slightest provocation or offence is fatal injury.This is then followed by cycles of revenge. The result is a rising sub-culture of death.
For a country that claims to be Christian we seem not to have heard of the gospel of the second chance. Neither do we seem to have been able to inspire a sense of obligation and duty on the part of those that benefit from the second chance.
It takes love and forgiveness to break the cycle of revenge and vengeance. It takes gratitude and a sense of belonging to inspire obligation and duty.
Errol Miller is Professor and head of the Institute of Education, UWI, Mona.
