Caribbean Faces New Dimensions of Crime Influx from Asia, Reveals PM Rowley at Symposium

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”.