murder of a British honeymoon couple, the rape of another British tourist and beating into unconsciousness of her husband in two Eastern Caribbean

recent murder of a British honeymoon couple, the rape of another British tourist and beating into unconsciousness of her husband in two Eastern Caribbean states could not have come at a more worse time for the region.The Caribbean is already burdened with a tarnished image in foreign media, including Britain, a major source of annual tourist arrivals, as a region plagued by gun-related killings and criminal violence.The upsurge in murders, rapes, gang violence and armed robberies have bludgeoned the flattering perception of the Caribbean as a "paradise" for tourists, and will prove quite challenging for the recently announced new initiative of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) to market the region as a "one Caribbean" brand.
What the tragedies of the British tourist victims have also propelled into public consciousness is the serious social and economic consequences Caribbean Community states continue to face for having to deal with the flow of criminal deportees being dumped in their respective native land from the United States of America, United Kingdom and Canada on completion of their prison terms for serious offences.
The shooting deaths of the honeymoon couple, Benjamin and Catherine Mulany, both 31, at their seaside cottage in Antigua and Barbuda last month, and the earlier rape at gunpoint of a British woman and kicking senseless her husband, both in their 50s, will now also revive interest in a valuable comparative study done for Caricom on "criminal deportation" with data and analyses on social/economic implications as well as options for dialogue with the deporting states.
Beyond Boundaries is an informative study by Jamaican criminologist, Dr Annmarie Barnes, and Randy Seepersad (senior research associate), focused on Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda.The first three happen to be the most crime-afflicted of Caricom's four major states and which are also burdened with the highest rates of criminal deportees; while Antigua and Barbuda, currently hitting the headlines over the murder of the British honeymoon couple also suffers from an unflattering image within the subregion of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).Beyond Boundaries, related to an initiative by Jamaica's former National Security Minister, Peter Phillips, has already served to inform discussions on crime and security during last year's Washington Conference on the Caribbean as well as last April's special one-day Caricom's summit on strategies to battle criminality and enhance national/ regional security.
While popular tourism destinations like Barbados, The Bahamas and St Lucia, were not part of the study on the implications of the policy of criminal deportation being pursued by the USA, UK and Canada, subsequent data have established that the presence of criminal deportees in those countries, (currently totalling approximately 900 in the case of Barbados), have contributed to a worsening of murder rate and violent criminality.Between 1990 and 2005, a total of 33, 268 persons were deported to Jamaica as the country of their origin, after serving prison terms for various offences. Approximately 3,000 were sent back to Trinidad and Tobago. For the period 2000 to 2005 deportees to Guyana numbered 932 and 283 for Antigua and Barbuda.By identifying the USA and UK as countries that should "share the blame" for the crime epidemic afflicting Caricom states, like his own, because of their policy on criminal deportees, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Baldwin Spencer, current chairman of the 15-member Community, may have indirectly revived interest in the Beyond Boundaries study on this very challenging regionwide problem.Spencer made his "share-the-blame" comment in a national broadcast the day after the shooting death of Catherine Mullany while her husband Benjamin was still in coma. He later died in a hospital in Wales.Like other Caricom leaders, Prime Minister Spencer is quite aware of the urgent need for effective cooperation from the deporting countries with the Caribbean Community states affected by the dumping of criminal deportees, quite a few of whom have been involved, across the region, in murders and criminal violence, though the overwhelming majority of offences continue to be committed by home-based criminal elements.The Beyond Boundaries study was intended to help Caricom governments to examine the impact of deportation on regional crime rates and to develop a coordinated regional framework to guide further negotiations with the principal deporting countries, USA, UK and Canada.
The study includes a review of legislative framework, administrative and procedural guidelines that govern the receipt of criminal deportees with specific focus on the management of "high-risk offenders"; an analysis of current receiving, reporting and monitoring mechanisms and an evaluation of the social impact of deportation generally.
Some social scientists have noted that while the foreign media often come down heavily against murders and other crimes in the Caribbean, it should not be ignored that countries of this region are no less safe than the capitals of the big and wealthy nations, Washington and London being examples.
This, they argue, is not an attempt to rationalise criminality but to encourage a more objective assessment of the social realities of life in the Caribbean where, for all its present woes, aggravated by armed criminals, remains a comparatively stable, safe and quite attractive region for tourists and visitors in general.
When the Caricom Bureau, which functions as a management committee between summit and inter-sessional meetings of the Community's Heads of Government meet shortly, consideration should be given to utilising the Beyond Boundaries study to re-engage the USA, UK and Canada on new policies and programmes to deal with the challenges posed by their policies on criminal deportees.
This trio of traditional Caricom aid and trade partners cannot be unmindful of the serious harm being done to the region's social and economic development by the current crime wave and the negative publicity this is attracting in some leading metropolitan centres.