Deportee debate - Discussions ongoing over sending Jamaican prisoners home
Published:Tuesday | January 25, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Gary Spaulding, Senior Gleaner Writer
High-level talks have commenced between the governments of Jamaica and the United Kingdom to explore British Prime Minister David Cameron's proposal to fast-track the return of Jamaicans serving time in prison in that country.
Jeremy Browne, minister of state in Britain's Foreign Office, made the disclosure in an interview with The Gleaner late last week.
"That is something that we are exploring between the two governments, but no definite decisions have been made," Browne said. "It will require legal changes, as I understand it, here in Jamaica."
Reports of Cameron's comments in late 2010 evoked consternation among Jamaicans locally and abroad and elicited strong reactions from Jamaica's National Security Minister Dwight Nelson.
Browne emphasised that the talks were simply exploratory at this stage.
Jamaica was the last leg of a three-island visit last week by Browne who dubbed himself the 'Minister for the Caribbean'.
The other countries he visited were Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados.
The British politician said there was a range of matters that would have to be looked at carefully, including financial implications to budgets and prison capacity, as well as rehabilitation issues.
"These are some things that we would have to talk through as well," said Browne.
He was emphatic that the British government would not throw the problems into the lap of the Jamaican Government.
"There is no question that we are suddenly going to deport all serving Jamaicans to Jamaica and give the problem to the Jamaican authorities," he stressed.
"What the two governments are exploring is whether, in the future, there is a scope for a successfully run programme."
Browne said under such an arrangement, British nationals serving time in Jamaica would also be sent home.
Complete sentence at home
"The specific issue that the prime minister was talking about is getting persons of foreign nationality back to their country before completing their sentences."
He has maintained that law-abiding Jamaicans in the diaspora were not being targeted and that a large number of British people of Caribbean origin have made enormous contributions to that nation.
Browne said it was acknowledged in the private and public sectors, as well as by members of all major political parties in Britain, that the roles of and contributions made by people of Jamaican nationality could not be disregarded.
He stressed that Cameron was making reference to a much more specific issue, which was the subject of Jamaican nationals and not British citizens with Jamaican ancestry.
He said the British prime minister's focus was squarely riveted on Jamaica nationals who have broken the law in such a severe way that it has attracted a prison sentence.
"There are more Jamaicans in British prisons than there are any other categories of foreign nationals, so it is an issue that needs to be looked at."
Browne said Cameron's proposal was a step beyond the existing arrangements that ensure that foreigners who served sentences in Britain are deported to their country of birth after their release.
"And that is done in a very systematic, careful way with regard to Jamaica nationals who have finished their prison sentences, and we try to assist by helping the Jamaican authorities to reintegrate people into society."
Browne, one of the young politicians who have been swept into political action in the new
British dispensation, is of the view that the coalition government is performing above expectations.
Exceptional circumstances
"We are in new territory, and in some ways we have not had a coalition government since the Second World War, and, of course, those were exceptional circumstances," asserted Browne.
"If you had asked people a year ago, how would a coalition government work in Britain, they would say it would be disorganised, chaotic, couldn't work, and would put off decisions. Now, if anything, they are saying the government is far too firm."
Browne said the British Parliament was confronted with a difficult programme given that it has to be wrestling with a problematic budget deficit.
"Choices will have to be made to reduce budgets and increase some taxes, but overall, things are pretty stable," Browne said.