No refuge for Haitian prisoners in Jamaica

THE local security forces say they have the names and photographs of hundreds of convicts who escaped from prisons in earthquake-ravaged Haiti last month, and would be carefully screening refugees who turn up on Jamaica's shores.

Some 4,000 prisoners are believed to have escaped on January 12 when the magnitude-7.0 quake struck that country.

But on Saturday Security Minister Dwight Nelson said the names and photographs had been circulated and would be used by lawmen at the various entry points across the island as part of the screening process.

"Many of these convicts took guns when they escaped," the minister said while making a presentation at the annual general meeting of the Kingston Chapter of the Lay Magistrates' Association at the Kingston Bookshop, downtown Kingston.

"The police in Jamaica continue to be on high alert and on the lookout," Nelson added.

The police, however, have since said that if escaped convicts turned up on Jamaica's shores they would be placed at correctional facilities, and not refugee camps.

On Saturday, Nelson explained that this move was all part of measures to protect the country.

According to the minister, the impact of the drugs-for-guns trade between Jamaica and Haiti was "overwhelming" and, as a result, stricter measures would have to be taken against criminals who may want to leave Haiti for Jamaica with intentions to continue their illegal practice.

"The culture of violence continues to manifest itself. The year 2010 has not started as we would wish it to ... guns continue to be easily accessed by criminals in our society (and) we have struggled in the last five years against the illicit importation of guns," Nelson told the gathering.

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