New dimensions of crime have found their way to the Caribbean, from as far away as Asia.
That was revealed by Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley yesterday at the second regional Symposium: Violence As A Public Health Issue, as he spoke as part of a panel of Heads of Government in Georgetown, Guyana, that included Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley, President of Guyana Dr Irfaan Ali and Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
While Rowley outlined significant progress in the initiatives from the first symposium, he stated: “We are still being assailed by the rising tide of criminal conduct, influx of firearms and, in recent times, we have been advised of organised criminal conduct penetrating our region from as far away as Asia.”
He told the regional leaders and other stakeholders that having accepted violence as a public health issue, “many of us can report violent conduct and the very disturbing presence in our schools among our young people. We believe that we are approaching this issue in the correct and sustainable way”.
Rowley, who has lead responsibility for crime and justice in the quasi CARICOM cabinet, said regional countries were making a much more meaningful effort at seeking to implement measures to deal with the crime situation.
“I am pleased to say that the firearmstracing capability of the region has been considerably enhanced through the expansion of the Regional Integration Ballistic Network which enables our CARICOM member states to access firearms-tracking equipment and technologies. In response to our appeal and demand to the United States, they have come forward with some initiatives.”
He said crucial model legislation was developed “to facilitate the harmonisation of laws across the Community, and notably facilitating the completion of the template legislation for the CARICOM arrest warrant bill . . . . We are there”, he said to loud applause.
“Our little criminal punks must now know that in every CARICOM territory the law applies to them equally with respect to warrants for their restraint, apprehension, in anticipation of successful prosecution, that there are no safe harbours in any of our Caribbean territories,” he said, congratulating the legal teams.
“We would want to have that implemented as quickly as possible,” he said.
Cross-border cooperation Rowley said with respect to the advance passenger information and the passenger name record bills, both of which provide a foundation for efficient cross-border cooperation, “significant progress has been made and that completion can be announced in anticipation of the work we will be doing with those developments”.
“These are tools that will facilitate law enforcement in a very efficient way and allow them to have an upper hand on those who plan crime against our population,” he said, adding there were also steps to strengthen intelligence and information sharing across borders.
“Police can now investigate, apprehend and prosecute criminal actors. One thing I can add here is that our police management leadership need to cooperate and collaborate across our Caribbean territories, identifying known, bad actors before they execute their plans against us so that the police can have a more effective response against those who choose crime as a way of life.”
He said a Caribbean gang database was established at CARICOM IMPACS as an important resource for law enforcement agencies across the region.
Earlier, Mitchell, who is also the CARICOM chairman, said “this vision in bringing the issues related to the high levels of violence and crime experienced in our countries into the realm of a public health approach has signalled a strong intent by us as leaders to decisively and collectively treat with this challenge that threatens the development of our Community’s citizens”.
He said following the first symposium and in keeping with the Secretariat’s Strategic Plan, the CARICOM Secretariat was collaborating with the relevant CARICOM institutions, member states and developmental partners to implement the Declarations issued last year through several successful partnerships.
He said changed behaviours must be at the top of the list for the implementation of any framework to curb crime to be a success and specific groups would be targeted – “women, youth and communities, both as victims and as partners”.
Mitchell said the plan was to wrest “our Caribbean community gains from the hands of transnational criminal organisations and to secure the region’s related economic development by ensuring our culture and our citizens remain safe to engage in positive social and economic activities”.
Ali highlighted the severe economic and social burden crime and violence imposed on the region. He said a 2017 International Monetary Fund report found that “violent crime is pervasive in the Caribbean and imposes a serious economic and social burden on countries in the region”.
In that survey 40 per cent of citizens identified crime as “an overarching issue, even more than poverty and inequality”.
Ali said the Inter-American Development Bank recently estimated the cost of crime and violence in Latin America and the Caribbean to be at 3.44 per cent of the region’s GDP (gross domestic product) in 2022. (NS)
