SO, you single out deportees for tracking!

What about sexual offenders released from the prisons of Trinidad and Tobago?

In the United States there is a National Sex Offenders Registry in which sexual predators have to register their whereabouts upon release from prisons, probation, etc.

All States are mandated by US Federal law to partake in some sort of sexual offenders registry in order to track these offenders, if they do not wish to partake in the National registry.

“Operation Predator” is an initiative developed by the Department of Homeland Security’s Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to protect children worldwide.

With such registries, it allows the sheriffs or the local police departments to notify residents via phone calls that a sexual offender will be relocating to their neighbourhood.

It is a system very much needed in this beautiful twin-island State of Trinidad and Tobago, to protect the innocence of our children and society at large.

I support any initiative to implement such a tracking system such that our neighbourhoods will be aware that a predator will be at hand.

Sexual predators, paedophiles, rapists, murderers, and other serious offenders are released on a daily basis from the prisons of TnT with no tracking or notification to the public and they are allowed to walk out as free men and women back into this society.

Why is there such a push for deportees to be tracked, ostracising them even more.

Singling out deportees shows a blatant display of discrimination and prejudice.

What about those serious sexual offenders being released from the Trinidad and Tobago prisons?

Any type of protective programme geared towards the safety of the public at large should incorporate all target groups.

Targetting only defenseless groups shows a blatant disregard for fairness and equity.

Deportees have special circumstances, circumstances with which you are well familiar; major among these is homelessness, a situation that can fuel a level of desperation that would impel other forms of delinquency.

Familylessness, starting life all over again with little or no funds, with little or no financial or emotional support, unemployment, psychological trauma, exposure to a culture and country not familiar with are but a few of the dilemmas deportees are faced with on a daily basis.

To add insult to injury, they are now singled out and made the scapegoat for the ails of this society, a society in which they did not commit a crime.

Currently there are no statistics by the Ministry of National Security to substantiate any propagandist statement made by Prime Minister Patrick Manning that deportees are a major contributor to the out-of- control crime in this country.

Operation Predator is well touted with good intent to protect our children and our society at large.

It was not intended to target vulnerable groups such as deportees. Instead, it was intended to protect our children and to create a sense of security in our neighbourhoods from all serious sexual offenders.

One thing we have failed to consider in this equation is that while we become so focused on those sexual offenders convicted, we ignore the fact that there are many others engaged in the very same serious sexual offenses, sometimes even worse, who are not caught, and those who may never be reported because they are our husbands, fathers, grandfathers, brothers, uncles, and even female relatives.