By Matthew Falloon, Staff ReporterJAMAICA HAS been ranked as one of the seven countries having the highest deportation rates from the United States over the last eight years and, along with Colombia, suffers from the highest criminal conviction return rate, according to the most recent published research conducted by the Ministry of National Security and Justice.
However, recent reports that up to 12,000 Jamaicans have been fingered for deportation from the US have not yet been confirmed by the superpower's Kingston-based Embassy, with officials waiting on internal verification. It is also unclear how many of that figure would be criminally-related deportee cases and how many would be related to non-criminal offences.
An Embassy source revealed that some Embassy staff had expressed surprise at the 12,000 figure. Concern has been raised that Jamaica is ill-equipped to deal with the influx of criminal deportees and increased deportation of criminals would only exacerbate the existing crime problem with over 40 criminal deportees arriving in the island on an average weekly basis.
VOLUME
Nonetheless, it is clear that the volume of Jamaican deportees is higher than average, and the proportion of criminally-related cases is higher still. An executive summary of deportee research initiated in January 2000 and posted on the Internet by the Criminal Justice Research Unit in the Ministry of National Security and Justice states that "despite there being proportionate immigration rates from European and Asian countries, the Caribbean, Central and South America continue to show a disproportionately high deportee rate when compared to the other regions."
SOCIAL WELFARE
The recent increases in deportation are due to concerted efforts by American authorities to reduce social welfare and incarceration costs spent on non-citizens, according to the summary. Jamaicans figure prominently in the criminal-related deportee cases among the top seven which includes Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.
According to the Economic and Social Survey of Jamaica 2001 2,529 people were deported last year and some 17,760 have been returned over the last 12 years. Last year, saw a leap in deportees from the United Kingdom, with 765 returning, about 500 more than in 2000. The majority of the remainder were returned from the States. Of the 2,529 persons deported last year, only 719 were illegal aliens and only 129 had false documents, almost half were drug felons and others were involved in more serious offences, including 45 for murder/manslaughter.
