By IANTHIA SMITH, Guardian Staff Reporter, ianthia@nasguard.com

A top government official said many Bahamian deportees are hardened criminals in the countries they are kicked out of.

Reports from the consular section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs revealed that many Bahamians who are sent home from these countries have racked up criminal records there before being told to leave. The source, who did not want to be named, said many of the Bahamian citizens who are detained in foreign jail cells aren't just there for overstaying their time, but are being locked up for more serious crimes.

"It's a mixture of them," she said. "Some of them are criminal detainees who are on drug charges, vehicle theft, we have some with possession of crack cocaine and other drugs, assaults, domestic violence and aggravated felony offenses. We noticed that a lot more of them are on the possession of cocaine, and we have some on petty larceny theft. It happens on occasion and it's something we've been dealing with for quite a while."

The source was responding to a Nassau Guardian article that highlighted the often hidden story of Bahamians being caught on the wrong side of the immigration fence. The foreign affairs worker added that while most of these Bahamian deportees were sent from various parts of the United States, many of them were also caught in Canada, Jamaica and Cuba. Figures from the ministry showed that the period June to December 2007 saw 53 Bahamians being shipped back home and from January to June of this year, 41 of them were sent back. She said while she had these figures, she could not say just how many Bahamian citizens were sent home from the other countries, adding though that the ones in Cuba and Jamaica were mainly there on drug charges.

In an earlier Guardian report, Immigration Director Vernon Burrows said even though there is often little being said about Bahamians being immigrants, it's a situation that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is constantly faced with.

"That's continuous," he said. "That's one of the realities of migration and we see this happening every so often, so yes, it does happen now and then."

A report issued by the U.S. State Department reported that the United States government sent back more than 3,000 deportees to the Caribbean region in the past nine months. Of that number, 91 of them were Bahamians. The report then added that 74 of them were Bahamian criminal deportees while 17 were not. And just last week, a number of Bahamians were among a group of 62 immigrants nabbed over a five-day law enforcement operation in Fort Myers, Florida, to clamp down on the problem.

The foreign affairs source explained that when a Bahamian is arrested in another country, the ministry is notified of their arrest and asked to confirm that person's citizenship. After that has been confirmed, she said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security sends in a profile of the person they have in custody, a copy of which local foreign affairs workers take to the passport office to solidify their identity, adding that the detainee is then armed with a travel document to return home.

The source admitted that even though some of the deportees would have committed crimes in other countries if there is no warrant for their arrest in The Bahamas, these Bahamians who are deemed criminals in other countries are free men in their home towns.

"When they get home, because they have committed these crimes there and not here, they just come home and are free to go," she said. "If they are wanted, we share the info with the police who would intercept or deal with the person when they get here. If not, they go back into the society, they go out looking for jobs or if they have relatives they stay with them and then of course we lose track. We have nothing else to do with the individual."

The source added that many non-Bahamians try to pass off as citizens of this country in a bid to move here when they get locked up, but their true identities are quickly exposed. She added that immigration workers here and in the countries plagued with the problem are doing all they can to crack down on the problem.