13 Sasa’a le fafao?: Approaches to Return and Reintegration of Criminal Deportees (Returnees)

13 Sasa’a le fafao?: Approaches to Return and Reintegration of Criminal Deportees (Returnees)

20 Aug 2024

States of the Global South, amongst them Pacific states, including the Independent State of Samoa (hereafter, Samoa), the Kingdom of Tonga, the Republic of Fiji, the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, have been on the receiving end of the global push for ‘crimmigration’—a practice of criminalising migrants, and removing migrants found to be criminal (Golash-Bo. [...] The majority of crimmigration literature about deportation focusses on the laws and practices of the deporting state and does not often cross borders to the receiving state—unlike the individual (Khosravi 2018; McNeill 2023). [...] The next step in setting the narrative of returnees as part of the community relied-upon effort from the SRCT leadership in localising the original UN reintegration guidance. [...] By 2019, the SRCT had 200 members (Tupufia-Ah Tong 2019), and by 2023, membership was estimated at over 300.10 The Creep of Crimmigration? In mid-2017, a number of factors collided, with increasing reoffending, diplomatic and regional involvement, and a change of leadership in both the police force and the SRCT, ultimately shifting the tone in Samoa about returnees. [...] Accumulated unease of the public and government officials amounted to ‘major concerns to the security and safety of the community and the country at large’ (Leo quoted in Fox 2018) and gave rise to thoughts that ‘Samoa’s peaceful environment is not safe anymore’ (Afi quoted in Fox 2018).

Authors

Tracy Creagh

Pages
12
Published in
Australia

Table of Contents