Fewer British drug mules targeting Ja
Published:Sunday | January 23, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Janet Silvera, Senior Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Director of Consular Services at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Julian Braithwaite, says there is a 67 per cent reduction in the number of British nationals in Jamaican prisons, resulting from the aggressive fight against the drug trade.
However, indications are that the illicit traders are now focusing on smaller island states, such as Barbados, where there is a spike in United Kingdom (UK) prisoners.
"You manage to drive down the problem in one place and it pops up elsewhere. This is what the Americans call 'wack-a-mole'."
Braithwaite, who is based in London, made a quick visit last Wednesday with the 50 British inmates currently serving time at Jamaica's Fort Augusta and Tower Street prisons.
"Two years ago, we had over 150 British nationals in prisons here, now we only have 50, which is very good news," he told The Sunday Gleaner.
The FCO official credits the increasing cooperation between Jamaica and the UK as one of the main reasons behind the fall. "By targeting the smuggling networks here, the people who run those networks realise that it is now harder to penetrate the system," he argued.
The drug trade was still alive, he said, noting that a major drug bust had taken place here a couple months ago. "We believe the cooperation between Jamaica and the UK is proving effective," he added.
It was Braithwaite's first visit to Jamaica, undertaken as part of his responsibilities to assess the situation of prisoners in foreign countries and the conditions under which UK nationals are held.
"That probably takes up half of the time of our consular staff, and so I wanted to come and see the situation here," he said, noting that almost all of the British nationals here were imprisoned because of drug smuggling.
"They might think this is a quick way to make money, but the consequences are severe. One of the things we do in the foreign office is to run a 'Know Before You Go' campaign," he said.
Ironically, the tag line is the opposite of Jamaica's tourism marketing slogan, 'Once You Go, You Know,' which is used to lure visitors to our shores.
According to Braithwaite, most of the 'Know Before You Go' campaign is based on simple things, such as taking out travel insurance and knowing the laws or customs for the country you are visiting.
"But there is now interest in having a specific campaign warning young people, who are usually not criminals, but could be tempted to thinking that drugs money is a quick way.
"Unfortunately, it's too late to stop them when they are in prison, but what we have done with Brits in prisons in other countries is to do interviews to say how it happened to them and why it is a mistake," he said, noting this was the most powerful campaign to date.
Through hundreds of interviews of prisoners in South America, they have succeeded in getting the message out using YouTube, because, "new media is one of the fastest way to get to young people".
Next step
Their next step is to introduce this in the Caribbean. "It's very tragic. This event is going to affect the lives of these young people, and if we can communicate with people who may attempt to do this, we can prevent the heartache for the many families affected by this problem of drug smuggling," asserts Braithwaite.
The youngest British prisoner here is a 16-year-old girl, who is confined to a wing designed to accommodate juveniles at Fort Augusta.
Conditions in the Jamaican prisons are not the same as in England. That is part of the consequence the smugglers face. "We are obviously concerned about the welfare of British citizens, but don't expect them to get preferential treatment."
During his visit, Braithwaite saw how old the Jamaican prisons were, having been built many years ago by the British.
There is also the problem of overcrowding, with three prisoners to one small cell, and in some cases, more than three.
His visit, he said, was even more pivotal as contact for those incarcerated in far countries was very important, "They are far away from family, far away from home, pretty difficult to make telephone calls, so one of my jobs is to ensure there is some type of contact."