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Guyana agreed to deportees for cash – WikiLeaks

Jun 17, 2011 News

According to an article in the Jamaica Gleaner, a confidential diplomatic cable accessed by the Press through WikiLeaks reveals that the government of Guyana agreed to a progamme which would have seen the US help to fund the reintegration of force-returned migrants.
“On December 20 2007, the Jamaican prime minister rejected the US offer for assistance for returning deportees though the pilot Deportee Reintegration Programme,” said the December cable from Kingston to Washington.
According to the cable, the Jamaican Government’s refusal of the programme allowed for the department to reassign the funds that would have been used for Jamaica to Guyana.
“The cable noted that while Jamaica rejected the United States’ offer, Guyana, another CARICOM country, signed the deal which would see the establishment of a permanent intake centre to serve as a temporary residential facility for deportees and provide them with adequate social and financial assistance to successfully reintegrate into society.”
The embassy said “the programme does not entail any proposed or anticipated increase in the flow of deportees from the US to Guyana”.
It also noted data that show Jamaica, Guyana and The Bahamas to be receiving the most deportees from the US.
“The governments of both Guyana and The Bahamas have indicated their intention to proceed with the programme, without any objection, reservation or condition related to CARICOM,” the cable stated.
In a last-ditch effort to get Jamaica to agree, the embassy told the Jamaican Government it “is solely meant to benefit your country in a way you would find most appropriate to your needs, and is intended to meet a long-stated concern of Jamaica’s about the resource cost to resettling returning deportees”.
A CARICOM study found that almost 30,000 criminal offenders had been deported to Guyana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago between 1990 and 2005.
More than 17,000 had been deported for drug offences; almost 1,800 for possession of illegal firearms, and more than 600 for murder. The United States is responsible for more than 75 per cent of all criminal deportations to the region.
Many of Guyana’s criminals have been recorded as deportees from the United States that are left with no mean of sustenance in the Guyanese society that they know very little of and most of the individuals have yet to see the funds allocated to Guyana for their reintegration.
The United States Embassy said “as a matter of policy, the US government does not comment on the contents of these alleged cables that purport to include classified information”.
“The US Embassy condemns in the strongest terms the deliberate and unauthorised disclosure of information, represented as classified materials by individuals and organisations, which puts lives at risk and jeopardises our national interests.”

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