St. Lucia and the other countries in CARICOM are now better placed to deal with fleeing criminals. A new bill passed earlier this week in St. Lucia seeks to ensure that those evading justice from one territory by seeking refuge in another are quickly apprehended and returned to the country where the offense was committed. The intention is to dramatically reduce the red tape associated with crime as a region.
“The CARICOM Arrest Warrant Bill will make it easier based on certain criteria within the law and within the Constitution to make it easier to arrest people in other countries and take them back to their countries,” Prime Minister Philip Pierre confirmed. He went on, “And this is a very significant step. As I said in the Parliament yesterday, that treaty was signed in 2017 and passed in 2019 and we’re only now implementing it because I guess everybody was concerned at the constitutional rights of people. So that is a step in the right direction where we will be able now to bring persons to justice when they are accused so that they can get to a fair trial.”
The CARICOM Arrest Warrant Bill comes at a time when the entire region is experiencing an unprecedented wave of criminal activity including murders and drug related incidents. The Prime Minister was adamant that the bill was necessary especially because regional borders are easily accessible. “And sometimes when they go to the island, to the other country, they have 6-month stay. And then when we find them, when law enforcement finds that that person has committed a crime, to get them back to [the] other country, we have to go through extradition and all sorts of red tape… I made the point that the Constitution always has to be observed.”
Prime Minister Pierre was confident that the bill will assist in the reduction of cold case situations in the region.