This country’s Consul General in New York Selmon Walters says that the large numbers of Vincentian young men who are involved in crime in the United States is a cause for concern.{{more}}

Speaking to the media on Wednesday, July 13, Walters said that there a lot of men, especially young men, who are committing gun related crimes, and are involved in theft and domestic violence in the United States.

While noting that the problem was not only a Vincentian problem, but one for CARICOM as a whole, Walters said that the task of getting young people to act in an exemplary manner was now priority among many countries across the region.

He said that there was going to be a number of social problems with the large numbers of unskilled young people returning to the region.

And although the numbers of Vincentians being deported are not as high as some of the other countries in the region such as Jamaica, the matter was still a cause for concern, Walters said.

“The deportation issue is a cause for concern,” the Consul General said.

The Consul General also said that many persons were of the view that the large numbers of deportees were responsible for the rise in crime in the region.

“We see a high number of persons returning to the region, and the general feeling is that that is the reason for the high crime – people are blaming those deported for these crimes,” Walters said.

Nevertheless Walters said that such individuals, in spite of not having a productive skill, needed a means by which to live.

The challenge then, according to Walters, was how to train such individuals to become good citizens in their adopted home.

He said that he has always been an advocate for underproductive males, but now that he has been working in the Diaspora, he is seeing the flip side to the problem that exists locally. (DD)