The Editor, Sir:

I wish to commend Wendel Abel's effort in his article on the plight of deportees, 'I am what I think' published in The Gleaner, Wednesday, March 28.

I believe he has done a good job. He has comprehensively analysed the plight of this marginalised group and the effect that this United States public policy has had not only on individuals themselves who have been criminally deviant in the country in which they sought to call home, but also on their families here and abroad.

I wish to add further, however, that this deportee policy clearly undermines the U.S.' efforts to uphold its 'good neighbour" image.

In the meantime, being the proud Jamaicans we are, despite our current social, economic and political woes, it is heartening that we are still considering what the U.S. regards as rejects, as our own brothers who are still in need of the basic human rights to food, shelter, health care and life.

I, therefore, implore that all well-thinking Jamaicans include in their action plans, at the individual, community, organisational or national levels, some consideration for this group.

This, I believe, will be a proactive move to ensure that what is a potentially disastrous situation may in the long run result in a greater good for all.

I am, etc.,

NOVLETTE JOHNSON

novlettej@hotmail.com

New Kingston

Via Go-Jamaica