Righteousness!

Righteousness!

That's the call from Wayne Chance on a lively show yesterday. Chance wants government officials to be more accountable for the wide cracks in the system as regards deportees.

A glaring example was a recent case of a man deported with no-one to meet him at Piarco. He was forced to walk from Piarco to the St. Joseph Police Station where he was referred to Chance's Vision on Mission. After walking from St. Joseph to San Juan, the man collapsed with exhaustion; he hadn't eaten since he left the United States.

Four deportees appeared on the programme - a 62 year old pensioner 'set up' as he claims with a drug dealing charge, a 24 year old who was nabbed for his involvement in a murder, a 31 year old Gulf War veteran who was deported from the UK and a 40-something year old who was serving time for an offense when the decision was made to deport him.

While only 2 of the deportees argued it was inhumane to send someone back to a country they don't know, the general consensus was that if you commit a crime in another country, and in many cases, you are living there illegally, that country reserves the right to send you back to the land of your birth.

Where the lines get blurred is when the country receiving what is now a criminal, has no systems in place to ensure that individual is afforded the dignity of making a smooth transition. Deportees who return to Trinidad and Tobago are often not greeted by an official or relative (if any still exist) at the airport and as a result, filter into the society unchecked and undocumented, thus enabling a lapse into the cirminal world to survive.

Contrary to statements made by US Ambassador, Dr. Roy Austin, we have to true picture of the impact deportees are having on the crime, drugs or HIV situations because of two reasons: the police's crime detention rate is abysmally low, so if you can't catch the criminals, how does one know who they are? Also, there are no health checks on the deportees to determine whether he/she has a drug addiction or is HIV positive. Shouldn't this be important information?

As the number of deportees increases, the lapses in the system become more glaring. This is Chance's point - that the authorities should not be so preoccupied with 'looking bad' but with filling the gaps. Have a conscience, he says. Deportees are people too.

We wait to see what further discussion is raised on the issue and Eye on Dependency will definitely keep following up on it.