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Jamaica wants Canada to help look after `cons' it sends back TheStar.com - News - Jamaica wants Canada to help look after `cons' it sends back
Steady flow of criminals are proving a burden on meagre home resources
November 23, 2007
Sandro Contenta
Feature Writer
KINGSTON, Jamaica–They arrive on flights dubbed "Con Air," a steady flow of Jamaicans thrown out of their adopted countries as convicted criminals.
More than 33,000 deportees have landed during the past 15 years, almost all removed from Canada, Britain and the United States. For a country of 2.7 million people struggling with poverty, limited police resources and rampant crime, the deportations are placing added strain on an already burdened society, Jamaican officials say.
After years of lobbying Canada and others to end the practice, Jamaica recently changed tactics. It's now pushing for funds to set up programs that help deportees re-integrate into a land some haven't seen since childhood.
The U.S. and Britain, which by far expel the most ex-offenders, recently made financial offers. But Canada has apparently remained silent.
"I haven't heard anything from Canada," says Ann Marie Barnes, chief technical director of Jamaica's Ministry of National Security.
Last year, Jamaican officials counted 224 deportees from Canada. In 2005, the number was 217. They say the actual number is somewhat higher, noting they don't always become aware of Jamaicans who voluntarily leave Canada after being ordered deported.
About 122,000 Jamaican-born residents live in Canada, according to the 2001 census.
A joint report released in March by the United Nations and the World Bank indicated the extent of the challenge facing Jamaica.
Between 2001 and 2004, Jamaica absorbed 2,700 deportees a year from the U.S., Britain and Canada – a huge influx, given that Jamaica's prison population in 2003 was only 4,744.
A United Nations/World Bank report notes that Canada and the other countries have a legal right to deport criminals who are not citizens. But it suggests they have a moral responsibility for deportees, "especially those who were raised in the ghettos of three of the richest countries in the world."
The report also notes that 85 per cent of Jamaica's skilled labour emigrates, mostly to the U.S., Britain and Canada. These countries, Barnes says, benefit from Jamaica's best while deporting those who have gone wrong, saddling the island with a high concentration of the unskilled and less employable.
"In a global world there should be a duty of care that is imposed on countries that are richer, that have much more material things at their disposal," says Barnes, adding she was not speaking on behalf of the Jamaican government.
The most notorious deportee from Canada was O'Neil Grant, thrown out after being acquitted of killing "Vivi" Leimonis, shot during a botched robbery at a Just Desserts café on Davenport Rd. in 1994. Grant's case fuelled calls for changes to federal legislation to more easily deport non-Canadians.
Grant had prior convictions for drugs and assault with a weapon. After 20 years in Canada, he was ordered deported by an adjudicator who described him as a public danger.
Two weeks ago, after five years in Jamaica, Grant was shot dead in what police say resembled a targeted hit. They say Grant, 37, never came to their attention here.
Last month, Toronto police arrested Lloyd Demetrius, 28, who sneaked back into the country after being deported to Jamaica two years ago. Demetrius, an alleged gang member, was convicted in 1999 for pumping three bullets into a man who tried to calm him down after Demetrius insisted on cutting to the front of the line in a Toronto takeout restaurant. He now faces more charges and another deportation hearing.
Grant and Demetrius – who came to Canada with his parents at the age of 2 – are examples of what Jamaicans describe as foreign-made criminals deported to a country they barely know.
"The notion that individuals can be rehabilitated – deportation almost flies in the face of that because it's the modern equivalent of banishment," says Barnes, who received a PhD in criminology from the University of Toronto.
"It's saying, you have done wrong therefore we don't want you to live among us. Is that something that goes with modern notions of justice?"
Separated from their children or parents, deportees suddenly find themselves in a culturally foreign country where they're widely stigmatized and blamed for Jamaica's soaring crime rate.
"Many of them don't have jobs and they do not have the sympathy of the public. They have no way of getting a leg up," says Rev. Garnet Roper, whose volunteer organization, Land of My Birth, is the only group providing re-integration services.
The group's only paid employee is Evelyn Mason, 50, a former gang member deported from Britain in 1994 after serving time for kidnapping and grievous bodily harm. Mason refused to speak to the Toronto Star when her demand for a $100 "donation" was turned down.
Examples of deportees involved in Jamaica's many violent gangs have fuelled perceptions of their disastrous impact in a country where more than 1,200 people have been murdered so far this year – 80 per cent of them with guns. (In the past few years, Jamaica has had an annual rate of 50 to 60 homicides for every 100,000 people. Canada's rate in 2006 was 1.9 murders per 100,000.)
But a report by the Ministry of National Security last year debunked some of the myths. It found that one of every 18 deportees to Jamaica was convicted of a crime here – the same proportion as the general population.
"They are just as likely to be convicted of crimes as anyone else in Jamaica. They are not overrepresented," says Barnes, who co-ordinated the study.
But the study also interviewed 200 deportees and found more than half admitted to being involved with crime since their return.
But a study by Bernard Headley, criminologist at Kingston's University of West Indies, challenges that statement. It also seems to debunk the belief that deportees develop their criminal ways in countries that throw them out.
He studied the records of 5,174 Jamaican criminals deported by the United States between 1997 and 2003. The mean age of entry to the U.S. was 23. Only a fifth arrived during the formative years of 16 to 20, and less than 3 per cent arrived before the age of 5.
The average age of deportees was 35, placing them in an age group less likely to re-offend. And 81 per cent of people deported to Jamaica were convicted of non-violent crimes, including immigration-related matters, fraud and drugs.
"The average deportee does not fit the profile of an individual who is likely to be a violent criminal on return to Jamaica," concludes the UN/World Bank report, basing its findings on Headley's figures.
"With current available data, it is possible to conclude that it is unlikely that the average deportee is committing violent crime in Jamaica."
But the report added: "In such small countries, it does not take a large number of offenders to have a large impact, particularly if they assume a leadership role in criminal gangs on their return or provide perverse role models for youth."
Steady flow of criminals are proving a burden on meagre home resources
November 23, 2007
Sandro Contenta
Feature Writer
KINGSTON, Jamaica–They arrive on flights dubbed "Con Air," a steady flow of Jamaicans thrown out of their adopted countries as convicted criminals.
More than 33,000 deportees have landed during the past 15 years, almost all removed from Canada, Britain and the United States. For a country of 2.7 million people struggling with poverty, limited police resources and rampant crime, the deportations are placing added strain on an already burdened society, Jamaican officials say.
After years of lobbying Canada and others to end the practice, Jamaica recently changed tactics. It's now pushing for funds to set up programs that help deportees re-integrate into a land some haven't seen since childhood.
The U.S. and Britain, which by far expel the most ex-offenders, recently made financial offers. But Canada has apparently remained silent.
"I haven't heard anything from Canada," says Ann Marie Barnes, chief technical director of Jamaica's Ministry of National Security.
Last year, Jamaican officials counted 224 deportees from Canada. In 2005, the number was 217. They say the actual number is somewhat higher, noting they don't always become aware of Jamaicans who voluntarily leave Canada after being ordered deported.
About 122,000 Jamaican-born residents live in Canada, according to the 2001 census.
A joint report released in March by the United Nations and the World Bank indicated the extent of the challenge facing Jamaica.
Between 2001 and 2004, Jamaica absorbed 2,700 deportees a year from the U.S., Britain and Canada – a huge influx, given that Jamaica's prison population in 2003 was only 4,744.
A United Nations/World Bank report notes that Canada and the other countries have a legal right to deport criminals who are not citizens. But it suggests they have a moral responsibility for deportees, "especially those who were raised in the ghettos of three of the richest countries in the world."
The report also notes that 85 per cent of Jamaica's skilled labour emigrates, mostly to the U.S., Britain and Canada. These countries, Barnes says, benefit from Jamaica's best while deporting those who have gone wrong, saddling the island with a high concentration of the unskilled and less employable.
"In a global world there should be a duty of care that is imposed on countries that are richer, that have much more material things at their disposal," says Barnes, adding she was not speaking on behalf of the Jamaican government.
The most notorious deportee from Canada was O'Neil Grant, thrown out after being acquitted of killing "Vivi" Leimonis, shot during a botched robbery at a Just Desserts café on Davenport Rd. in 1994. Grant's case fuelled calls for changes to federal legislation to more easily deport non-Canadians.
Grant had prior convictions for drugs and assault with a weapon. After 20 years in Canada, he was ordered deported by an adjudicator who described him as a public danger.
Two weeks ago, after five years in Jamaica, Grant was shot dead in what police say resembled a targeted hit. They say Grant, 37, never came to their attention here.
Last month, Toronto police arrested Lloyd Demetrius, 28, who sneaked back into the country after being deported to Jamaica two years ago. Demetrius, an alleged gang member, was convicted in 1999 for pumping three bullets into a man who tried to calm him down after Demetrius insisted on cutting to the front of the line in a Toronto takeout restaurant. He now faces more charges and another deportation hearing.
Grant and Demetrius – who came to Canada with his parents at the age of 2 – are examples of what Jamaicans describe as foreign-made criminals deported to a country they barely know.
"The notion that individuals can be rehabilitated – deportation almost flies in the face of that because it's the modern equivalent of banishment," says Barnes, who received a PhD in criminology from the University of Toronto.
"It's saying, you have done wrong therefore we don't want you to live among us. Is that something that goes with modern notions of justice?"
Separated from their children or parents, deportees suddenly find themselves in a culturally foreign country where they're widely stigmatized and blamed for Jamaica's soaring crime rate.
"Many of them don't have jobs and they do not have the sympathy of the public. They have no way of getting a leg up," says Rev. Garnet Roper, whose volunteer organization, Land of My Birth, is the only group providing re-integration services.
The group's only paid employee is Evelyn Mason, 50, a former gang member deported from Britain in 1994 after serving time for kidnapping and grievous bodily harm. Mason refused to speak to the Toronto Star when her demand for a $100 "donation" was turned down.
Examples of deportees involved in Jamaica's many violent gangs have fuelled perceptions of their disastrous impact in a country where more than 1,200 people have been murdered so far this year – 80 per cent of them with guns. (In the past few years, Jamaica has had an annual rate of 50 to 60 homicides for every 100,000 people. Canada's rate in 2006 was 1.9 murders per 100,000.)
But a report by the Ministry of National Security last year debunked some of the myths. It found that one of every 18 deportees to Jamaica was convicted of a crime here – the same proportion as the general population.
"They are just as likely to be convicted of crimes as anyone else in Jamaica. They are not overrepresented," says Barnes, who co-ordinated the study.
But the study also interviewed 200 deportees and found more than half admitted to being involved with crime since their return.
But a study by Bernard Headley, criminologist at Kingston's University of West Indies, challenges that statement. It also seems to debunk the belief that deportees develop their criminal ways in countries that throw them out.
He studied the records of 5,174 Jamaican criminals deported by the United States between 1997 and 2003. The mean age of entry to the U.S. was 23. Only a fifth arrived during the formative years of 16 to 20, and less than 3 per cent arrived before the age of 5.
The average age of deportees was 35, placing them in an age group less likely to re-offend. And 81 per cent of people deported to Jamaica were convicted of non-violent crimes, including immigration-related matters, fraud and drugs.
"The average deportee does not fit the profile of an individual who is likely to be a violent criminal on return to Jamaica," concludes the UN/World Bank report, basing its findings on Headley's figures.
"With current available data, it is possible to conclude that it is unlikely that the average deportee is committing violent crime in Jamaica."
But the report added: "In such small countries, it does not take a large number of offenders to have a large impact, particularly if they assume a leadership role in criminal gangs on their return or provide perverse role models for youth."