From Caribbean News Now

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados — For the second time in two weeks, the US embassy in Bridgetown has explicitly refuted as untrue claims by regional prime ministers in relation to the deportation of criminals back to their respective countries of origin.

In the latest press statement on Wednesday, the embassy rejected assertions by St Vincent and the Grenadines prime minister, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, that the United States does not provide regional governments with full information regarding criminal deportees.

“The problem is that when they deport them they don’t give us their full particulars, what are the antecedents, what are the details of the crime for which they were sentenced and then deported; what their record is so that we can do a better job of reincorporating them into society,” Gonsalves claimed recently.

However, according to the US embassy, the United States government only deports convicted criminals back to their country of origin in consultation with that country’s government.

“In the case of Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, US Embassy Bridgetown sends a letter to local police or other relevant local authorities informing them of the crime for which the individual is being deported, all pertinent information about the logistics of their return, and how local law enforcement can receive more detailed information regarding the criminal history of the individual,” the embassy pointed out in its statement.

At the time, Gonsalves was endorsing an earlier statement by newly elected Saint Lucia prime minister, Allen Chastanet, that the US government was contributing to regional crime by deporting criminals back to their countries of origin.

Ironically, Gonsalves was quoted separately as defending the right of Barbados to deport convicted murderer, Arleigh Hector James, back to his homeland – St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Chastanet had also claimed that 800 criminals were deported to Saint Lucia in one year.

However, according to US government statistics, the total number of deportees returned to Saint Lucia in the last five years was fewer than 100. In 2015, there were only eight such cases, which is a far cry from the 800 deportees in one year alone claimed by Chastanet.

In an earlier press statement last week, the embassy took Chastanet to task in relation to his greatly exaggerated numbers of criminal deportees to Saint Lucia, which forced him to issue an apology for his error on Wednesday, after initial attempts to claim that his comments were “taken out of context”.

The embassy also expressed the view that each country has an international obligation to accept the return of its nationals who are not eligible to remain in the United States or any other country.

“Any International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) member country has an obligation to accept its nationals who are deported for crimes committed in another country. Saint Lucia is an ICAO member (as is the United States) and is thus subject to this obligation,” the embassy said.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves

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