The Stephenson King administration is moving to establish a programme to monitor the movement of criminal deportees who are being returned to the island from the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.
National Security Minister Guy Mayers said that most of these individuals, having migrated from St Lucia several years ago, were being sent back to the island after serving time for crimes committed abroad.
Mayers said criminal deportees were contributing to the level of criminality here hence the decision to set up a system to monitor them.
“We must develop a system to deal with the criminal deportees who are coming back to our shores, because some of these people are well schooled in crime,” Mayers said.
“In some cases even with the best intentions they come back to find that they do not have the family ties and structures in place here to support them and they inevitably end up right back into a life of crime.
“We are now discovering that the sophistication of the level of crime by these deportees present many challenges to the police,” Mayers added.
He said that his ministry would be proposing a monitoring programme for deportees and made reference to the possible adoption of laws currently in place in the US which allows for convicted sex offenders to be registered and make selected information public.
The law already allows for a degree of monitoring and Mayers said Government looking into the adoption of a similar programme.
Meantime, the national security minister issued a strong caution to St. Lucian migrating to the US, Canada, and the UK to abide by the laws of those countries.
“St Lucians must understand that they have the reputation of their country to protect and reports coming out of Canada where a gang comprising mainly St Lucian youth are engaging in serious criminal activity must be of paramount concern to all, as this will have a negative impact on St Lucians seeking to go to Canada and the UK to better themselves,” Mayers added.
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