CARIBBEAN TODAY


Several Caribbean-born
 sex felons were arrested
 in New York last month.
 They include a 60-year-old
national of the Dominican,
who served time for the sexual
abuse of his granddaughter.
 Another Dominican
Republic national nabbed in
New York was charged with 13
counts of rape, six counts of
sodomy and endangering the
welfare of a 15-year-old he
tutored at an after-school tutor-
ing center. He too served jail
time.
 Others picked up late last
month in New York, United
States immigration officials
said, included a Guyanese,
who was charged with rape,
kidnapping and sodomy of a
12-year-old girl; and a Haitian,
who was convicted of four
counts of rape, five counts of
sodomy, nine counts of sexual
abuse and endangering the
welfare of a 12-year-old child.
The Haitian man allegedly
abused the young girl over a
four-day period.


(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2)
federal, state and local law
enforcement ,igL niu K Brazil,
Canada, Peoples Republic of
China, Colombia, Costa Rica,
Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador,
Ghana, Honduras, India,
Israel, Lebanon, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Peru, Syria,
Poland, Uruguay and
Venezuela.
 Florida law enforcement
agencies, including the
Orange County Sheriff's
Office; U.S. Customs and
Border Protection (CBP);
Jacksonville Sheriff's Office;
Miami-Dade Police
Department; City of Miami
Police Department; Coral
Gables Police Department;
Broward Sheriff's Office;


 Other migrants nabbed
for deportation in the New
York raid included nationals of
Jamaica, Trinidad and Cuba,
as well as China, Ecuador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Italy,
Liberia, Mexico and Norway.
Their names had not been
released up to press time.
 "When you think you have
seen it all, you find that there
are sex crimes even more
heinous," said New York
Special Agent-in-Charge
Martin D. Ficke.
 "As their convictions
demonstrate, these predators
are the worst of the worst.
They prey on our children and
they have forfeited their privi-
lege to remain in this country."
 Martin F. Horn, New York
City's probation commissioner,
added: "When the offenders
rounded up this morning are
deported, New York City will
be a safer place."

Compiled from CMC reports.
0


Palm Beach Sheriff's Office;
Hialeah Police Department;
and Florida Probation and
Parole also participated in the
operation.
 ICE explained that the
operation was "part of the
second phase of the Secure
Border Initiative (SBI), a
comprehensive multi-year
plan launched by the
Department of Homeland
Security to secure America's
borders and reduce illegal
migration".
 ICE was formed in Mar.
2003. It is the largest investiga-
tive arm of the Department of
Homeland Security in the U.S.

Gordon Williams is Caribbean
Today's managing editor.
*


NEWS

 Brain drain to North America


 is substantial ~ Jamaica


UNITED NATIONS, CMC -
Jamaica has told the United
Nations Commission on
Population and Development
that based on studies the brain
drain from Jamaica to North
America is "quite substantial".
 Easton Williams,
Jamaica's representative at the
commission's general debate
on population, migration and
remittances, said 1n 70
percent of tertiary-level grad-
uates emigrated annually from
Jamaica to North America
and the United Kingdom."
 Noting that migrants from
Jamaica were mainly persons
in their "prime reproductive
and productive years," and
were predominantly female,
Williams added that recent
studies indicated that Jamaica
and other countries in the
English-speaking Caribbean
have the highest loss of terti-
ary graduates in the world. He
said as a result of Jamaicans'
migratory patterns, the gov-
ernment has established a spe-
cial department in the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

U.S. willing to assist
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad,
CMC The United States has
offered to assist Trinidad and
Tobago fight corruption and
terrorism, Attorney General
John Jeremie has said.
 Jeremie returned from the
Dominican Republic where he
met with his U.S. counterpart
Alberto Gonzales during the
meeting of the Attorneys
General and Ministers of
Justice of the Americas.
 A statement issued by his
office said that he held private
talks with Gonzales on the
issue and was offered assis-
tance in the fight against cor-
ruption and terrorism.
 "The offer of assistance in
dealing with corruption and
terrorism came in an hour long
closed door meeting on (April


 "In recent years, the gov-
 ernment had implemented a
 number of innovative meas-
 ures for the mobilization of
 the diaspora for national
 development," he said. "The
 Jamaican diaspora had created
 niche markets in all its major
 destination countries that had
 great potential for expansion."

 COMMUNITIES
 Williams said given
 Jamaica's long history of emi-
 gration, Jamaicans have estab-
 lished large communities in
 major cities in North America
 and the United Kingdom, and
 set up numerous informal and
 formal associations and net-
 works in those cities. He
 noted that, in the 19th century,
 Jamaicans had migrated to
 Central America and other
 Caribbean territories in search
 of employment opportunities.
 "Many Jamaicans had
 died while building the
 Panama Canal," he said.
 "Today, many Central
 American communities retain
 Jamaican language, culture

T&T fight corruption
24) between
Attorney
General
Jeremie and
his U.S. coun-
terpart,
Alberto
Gonzales...",
said the state- Gonzalez
ment.
 It said that the assistance
 from Washington would come
 on a bilateral level.
 The statement said that
 Jeremie had been elected
 vice-president of the
 Attorneys General and
 Ministers of Justice, a working
 group under the auspices of
 the Organization of American
 States.
 0


and genealogical features."
 Williams also said the vol-
ume of remittances channeled
through official money trans-
fer networks has been increas-
ing since the 1990s, currently
estimated at some $1.5 billion,
or 10 percent of the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP). He
said remittance is currently
the largest source of foreign
exchange available to the
Jamaican government.
 "The reduction of
absolute poverty from an esti-
mated 35 percent in the early
1990s to the current estimate
of below 15 percent is also
linked to the increase in the
flow in remittances," he said.



 U.N. appoints

 Jamaican to int'l

 emergency group
 UNITED NATIONS, CMC -
United Nations Secretary
General Kofi Annan has
appointed a Jamaican among
12 members worldwide to the
Advisory Group of the U.N.
Central Emergency Response
Fund (CERF).
 Barbara Carby, director
general of the Office of
Disaster Preparedness and
Emergency Management of
Jamaica, is the only Caribbean
national appointed to the
group.
 Other representatives
comprised nationals from
Canada, India, Egypt, Sweden,
United States, Malaysia,
United Kingdom, Switzerland,
South Korea, South Africa
and the Netherlands.
 The first meeting of the
Advisory Group is scheduled
for May 23 in New York.
0


(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2)
Jamaica has shown clear
progress in its efforts to combat
trafficking in the country. After
Jamaica was ranked at Tier 3 in
the 2005 TIP Report, the gov-
ernment stepped up efforts to
address the problem and has
committed to do more in the
future", the report stated.
 Among the accomplish-
ments cited are the raids, clo-
sure and arrest of 39 people
believed to be involved in
trafficking activities.
 But the report warns that
more needs to be done in the
by the island's law enforce-
ment to combat this problem.
Throughout the month of


March, when Caribbean
Today tried repeatedly to con-
tact Jamaican government
representatives to get them to
discuss what specific steps
they are undertaking to
address this issue, calls went
unreturned to both the perma-
nent secretary in the Ministry
of Justice and or the Jamaica
Constabulary Force.
Meanwhile, the problem is
causing serious hurt.
 "The heartbreak of this is
that you lose your children,"
Katharine Cahn, Univerisity
of Portland graduate social
school professor, told
Caribbean Today. "It is an
invisible issue. There is a real
lack of awareness about it."


 For the U.S. State
Department, the importance
of this issue is becoming an
even greater concern.
Estimates are that human traf-
ficking is a $9.5 billion indus-
try, which brings about 17,500
people into the U.S. each year.
The U.S. can cut off military
aide and cultural exchange
programs and "withholding of
non-humanitarian, non-trade-
related assistance", to coun-
tries deemed to have done
nothing to combat trafficking.

Damian P Gregory is
Caribbean Today's deputy
managing editor.
0


Caribbean-born convicted

sex felons arrested in N.Y.


 ICE freezes Caribbean nationals

in Florida on immigration violations


U.S. warns region over human trafficking


May 2006