VZCZCXRO6521
RR RUEHGR
DE RUEHWN #1499/01 3411539
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 071539Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY BRIDGETOWN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5870
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BRIDGETOWN 001499 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KCRM SOCI PHUM PREL XL
SUBJECT: DEPORTEE DEBATE:  FLOGGING OLD MYTHS 
 
 
¶1.  (sbu)  Summary:  Objectivity continued to lose the battle 
against alarmism during a discussion of the criminal deportee 
issue at the December 4 inter-sessional meeting of the 
Association of Caribbean Chiefs of Police in Barbados.  Local 
media keyed on an alarmist - and as yet unpublished - 
CARICOM-sponsored study by a Jamaican National Security 
Ministry official regurgitating tired shibboleths of the 
deportee debate.  Luckily, the conference attendees appeared 
far more pragmatic, with at least two productive suggestions 
coming from the public portions of the meeting.  Busting 
these pernicious myths will continue to be a focus of our PD 
outreach efforts.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (sbu)  Regional police commissioners, judges, and other 
law enforcement community officials met for the annual 
Association of Caribbean Chiefs of Police meeting December 4 
in Bridgetown.  The event, which included both open and 
closed sessions, addressed a range of topics.  The conference 
chair, Barbados police commissioner Darwin Dottie, used his 
opening remarks at the plenary to focus attention on the need 
for additional training and cooperation among Caribbean law 
enforcement agencies in order to get a handle on rising crime 
in the region.  His remarks received good, balanced reporting 
in local media. 
 
¶3.  (sbu)  By contrast, a two-hour panel discussion on the 
criminal deportee issue was much more contentious, and 
received much more unbalanced reporting.  The primary 
combatants on the issue were the Embassy and Dr. Ann-Marie 
Barnes, who was presenting in her capacity as a CARICOM 
researcher but also spoke in her capacity as a (as presented) 
senior advisor to the Ministry of National Security of 
Jamaica.  Dr. Barnes' presentation was a read-out of her 
CARICOM-funded, and as yet unreleased, study of Jamaica, 
Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago.  The study's findings 
implied (but did not state) a strong causal link between 
increases in deportations and regional crime. 
 
¶4.  (sbu)  The study also highlighted the social problems of 
reintegration of deportees, raising open-ended questions 
about the fate of those returned and hinting at a causal link 
between deportation and unemployment levels, poverty, and the 
like.  It also concluded that deportees are much more likely 
to be repeat criminal offenders than the local norms. 
 
¶5.  (sbu)  Fortunately, Emboff had at hand the 
recently-published World Bank/UNODC study from March, 2007 
(available at 
www.unodc.org/pdf/world%20bank%20C&V%report.p df), which also 
covered Jamaica as a case study, and the findings of which 
directly contradicted virtually every one of Dr. Barnes' 
unpublished findings.  Emboff used the report and the 
opportunity to try to bust the most pernicious myths 
surrounding deportees, and to remind the group of the USG's 
recent commitment to address reintegration through the IOM 
program. 
 
¶6.  (sbu)  The assembled audience asked practical, focused 
questions about the reintegration program and next steps, 
lending a cordial and professional tone to the symposium.  A 
leading judge in Barbados even proposed to the group that the 
countries of the region needed to do more to amend existing 
criminal codes to allow judges to consider out-of-country 
past criminal records during sentencing for deportees 
convicted of crimes.  Dr. Barnes used the Q and A session to 
explain to the assembly that Jamaica had rejected the IOM 
proposal and referred it back to CARICOM for further action. 
 
¶7.  (sbu)  More disappointingly, though hardly surprisingly, 
local media ran Dr. Barnes' heretofore unpublished study 
verbatim and uncritically, conveniently omitting the 
countervailing evidence form the published World Bank/UN 
study.  One Barbados daily ran her findings under the heading 
"Spike in Crime Linked to Rise in Deportations".  A local 
radio station, meanwhile, ran Dr. Barnes' findings followed 
by an anecdote of a particular deportee having trouble 
reintegrating into Barbadian society. 
 
¶8.  (sbu)  COMMENT:  Law enforcement professionals in the 
region seem to want to focus on the practical aspects of 
deportees and crime - how to integrate them, how to know when 
they arrive, how to make sure repeat offenders or dangerous 
arrivals are appropriately screened and dealt with.  The 
media, meanwhile, along with some politicos, do not have a 
particular interest in the facts or in who is doing what to 
help address the key concerns of deportees who need help to 
reintegrate.  Sadly, many here prefer wallowing in 
victimization and blaming the U.S., U.K. and Canada for crime 
in the Caribbean.  Breaking through this media and 
governmental wall of hyperbole remains a daunting task, and 
will continue to be a focus of our PD outreach efforts in the 
eastern Caribbean. 
 
BRIDGETOWN 00001499  002 OF 002 
 
 
HOWARD