While all of the 25 men who were deported from the United States on Tuesday were collected by a relative or acquaintance, acting Police Commissioner Seelall Persaud said there are no programmes to help them reintegrate into society.
But he said the Guyana Police Force has left the door open and is willing to provide assistance to the men, however possible, should they come in to ask for it.
“There is nothing in place as far as I know [to help the deportees to resettle]. There used to be a few years ago when the International Organisation on Migration was active here but I am not aware of anything happening now. So they are pretty much like they were before, on their own, hoping to get help from relatives, community leaders and so on,” Persaud told Stabroek News.
“We have a lot of community projects going on all over, so if you live in those communities you would be engaged but outside of that is if they can come and ask for specific help that we can provide,” he added.
The group arrived aboard a chartered World Atlantic MD-82 jet with a heavy security escort on Tuesday. They were delivered to local law enforcement personnel here by US Federal Agents.
At the airport, some family members were waiting, believing that the men could be collected from there. They were informed that their relatives would have to be taken to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), at Eve Leary, to be processed and fingerprinted first.
Persaud said the police force is currently analying the files of the men and will determine on future monitoring of them when this is completed.
“There is an assessment going on now on the need to monitor,” he said, adding that for those for whom the need arise, we would apply for monitoring order. Apart from that police would do the normal intelligence type work,” Persaud said.
He pointed out that he does not know the specifics of the crimes committed by the deportees as yet but he has asked for a report. Said the Commissioner “I would get that after they conduct their analysis and know who they need to monitor and what approach we would take, so I don’t have that as yet.”
