750 deported to Guyana last year

– many for drugs, illegal entry

Seven hundred and fifty Guyanese were deported from various countries, including the United States and Canada, mostly for crimes ranging from drug trafficking to illegal entry.
This is according to a Guyana Police Force statement that listed the end-of- year crime statistics.
Guyana has struggled over the years to manage the large influx of criminal deportees, and a U.S.- backed International Organisation for Migration (IOM) programme to help resettle the returnees, had virtually flopped, U.S. Ambassador to Guyana D Brent Hardt had told this newspaper.
According to the police statement, deportees were also returned from the United Kingdom, Trinidad, Barbados, French Guiana, Suriname, St Maarten, Curaçao, France, Antigua, Jamaica, Holland, Costa Rica, and Spain.
Out of the 750 Guyanese deported, 158 were from the U.S.; 112 from Canada; 128 from Trinidad and Tobago; 82 from Barbados; and 234 from Suriname.
In June 2008, Guyana signed a cooperation agreement which allowed for the IOM to implement immigration programmes in the country.
The programme, which was deemed a pilot, and received funding from the U.S. government, was also implemented in The Bahamas. It was based on a similar project in Haiti.
The Home Affairs Ministry was identified as the focal point for the initiative whose focus was supposed to be in areas such as capacity building, advisory services, and technical cooperation on migration issues.
The subsequent establishment of an IOM office in Guyana was to facilitate the implementation of the “Reintegration of the Returned Migrants Project”, proposed by the IOM in response to the request for assistance made by Caricom leaders during a meeting in 2007 with former U.S. President George Bush and former State Secretary Condoleezza Rice. The influx of deportees is a top priority for many countries in the Caribbean and Latin America, and there have been calls for the U. S. to assist in addressing the issue of proper reintegration for deportees from that country.
However, Ambassador Hardt said, “technically, it is the responsibility [of each nation] to support their nationals”; however, “it would be ideal to have programmes that aided in rehabilitation”.
Guyanese security officials have routinely blamed some of the high-voltage crimes, particularly during the 2002 to 2004 crime wave, on criminal deportees.
Government had rushed to enact the 2002 amendment to the Crime Prevention Act, which stated that any deportee who poses a threat to public safety can be placed under police surveillance.
The amendment also states that all involuntary remigrants will not be considered first offenders.
Serious crimes
Meanwhile, police have also reported a one per cent decrease in serious crimes at the end of December 2012 in comparison to 2011. The police revealed that 3777 serious crimes were reported in 2012, compared to 3823 in 2011. Some of the offences monitored include murder, robbery under arms, robbery with violence, larceny from the person, break and enter and larceny, burglary, rape, and kidnapping.
With respect to murder, there were 137 murders in 2012, in comparison to 130 in 2011 – a five per cent increase.
Out of the 137 murders, 62 were of the disorderly type, 11 were committed during armed robberies, 24 were domestic related and nine were execution type, while 31 are so far undetermined.
During 2012, 24 of the murder victims were women, 16 of whom were brutally murdered by their spouses.
In 2011, 34 of the murder victims were women and 21 were killed as a result of domestic violence. Statistics for robbery under arms has increased by 21 per cent in 2012 compared to 2011. In this category, 1065 reports were made compared to 879 for 2011.
The statistics indicated an increase of 16 per cent in the number of armed robberies involving the use of firearms, and a 30 per cent increase in armed robberies where instruments other than firearms were used by the perpetrators. There has been a significant de crease in the offences of larceny from the person of 21 per cent; burglary by 18 per cent; and break and enter and larceny by 10 per cent.