Some Jamaicans who live overseas make the best of their opportunities and do try to play their part in ensuring that Jamaica is seen as a place where good people come from. They work hard to achieve their goals and continue to promote Jamaica’s culture, music, success in sports, and the “good vibes” spirit  which many nationalities have come to Jamaica to experience. Then there are some Jamaicans who migrate to other countries and become lost in the system, they do not make the best of their opportunities, and some even become hardened criminals. Some of the people included in the latter set get caught up in crime and in some cases are convicted, and face deportation from their “unadopted” countries.

After serving time in an overseas prison, deportation is likely to take place. This is a part of Immigration Laws between countries and Jamaica is no different. It happens annually at intervals from different countries and sometimes individuals who faced deportation are eventually deported after serving prison time. The last batch of persons deported to Jamaica arrived last week and this has re-ignited public interest in what happens to these people after they arrive back in Jamaica.

We know that they arrive on special “ghost’ flights, then they are processed and allowed to go to an address of their choosing. But are their activities monitored? How does the government help with their rehabilitation into the Jamaican society? Do they receive social benefits and what programs if any are in place to help these Jamaicans?

Access to information  has always been lacking in the Jamaican society. Politicians are not usually held accountable for anything they say or do. Laws of the county are either outdated, ineffective or not enforced by the relevant authorities.  People have been deported back to Jamaica from countries such as the UK for many years since Jamaica’s independence in 1962, and yet today, in 2017 the general consensus is that we do not have enough information of the Deportation process. Yet we see or know of persons who have been deported becoming career criminals in our society, we have seen or heard of some of them suffering harsh conditions among family members, or not being able to fend for themselves – in a society which they spent most of their lives living outside of. We know that persons who return to Jamaica with criminal records find it hard to gain employment.

[Deportation] is nothing new, but with Jamaica’s reputation as a “Crime Haven” it is time that the Government declares to the public what is in place for the people deported to Jamaica.

The sentiment of the average person is that Jamaica is already too burdened financially, psychologically and otherwise, for us to have-to accept more people who have committed crimes in other countries, without a clear plan of how we incorporate them into our society.

But then again, this results from politicians of the past 5 decades, who have sabotaged us by signing several treaties, laws, memorandums of understanding and other documents which do not favour the Jamaican people. So at this point, who’s responsible? Will we ever know? Only time will tell…