US ambassador: Deportees not causing crime now

UNITED STATES Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago, Dr Roy Austin, did not totally dismiss Trade Minister Ken Valley’s assertion of a link between US criminal deportees and kidnappings in TT. However, Austin said the data in his possession does not support Valley’s views on the matter. Speaking yesterday with reporters at the Servol Regional Training and Resource Centre on Pembroke Street, the US ambassador stated: “The data that I have shows only one deportee mentioned as being involved in kidnapping. Now that does not mean in the future there might be more. Maybe it’s some of those they haven’t caught yet, will end up having been involved in kidnapping.”

Austin however pointed out that until there is hard evidence to that effect, “We have to deal with the data that is available at present. Certainly the data I looked at says that the deportees are not making a significant contribution. How often do you see criminals mentioned in the newspapers claim to be deportees? That alone made me start to question what I was hearing because if these people were making such a heavy contribution to the crime rate, you will see more criminals mentioned as deportees. It has not started happening,” he declared.

The ambassador said he has facts and figures to back his statements. At a news conference on Monday, Valley said there was a causal relationship between deportees and crime in TT and the statistics which Austin referred to do not tell the whole story. The Minister also said the former UNC Government had no proper system in place to either monitor the deportees or keep them out of criminal activities. Austin indicated that under a June 12, 2000 Memorandum of Understanding between then US Attorney-General Janet Reno and former Prime Minister Basdeo Panday, the US Government was supposed to inform local authorities about “returning criminal deportees.”