Tendai Franklyn-Brown, Staff Reporter

Jamaica's Ambassador to the United States, Anthony Johnson, listens to a presentation at the Third Biennial Jamaican Diaspora Conference at the Jamaica Conference Centre on Tuesday. - Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer

Members of the Jamaican diaspora disclosed that they yearn to return home to Jamaica but fear for their safety amid soaring crime.

Canadian delegate, Chris Harris, said apprehension was the main factor keeping foreign-based Jamaicans away.

"Every one of us is thinking of some day coming back, not to put burden on the country, but to be entrepreneurial. At the moment, we are scared, we don't want to come because our lives are in danger," he said.

More than 700 persons have died violently in Jamaica since January, after the country recorded 1,574 homicides - the second highest ever - in 2007.

The now-governing Jamaica Labour Party vowed, while in opposition, to significantly reduce the murder rate. However, Harris has expressed disappointment at the Government's inability to stem the tide of bloodshed.

"Yesterday, we were instructed to walk out there and be confident and feel comfortable and that's not what we want to hear," he said. "We want to hear, last year there was X amount of murders and this year we have changed this, changed that and now it has decreased."

Harris told The Gleaner that the crime figures for 2008 so far, disclosed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Jevene Bent at a workshop titled 'Crime and Justice: Partnerships for Harmony and Peace' workshop, showed a lack of urgency and intervention required to bring about change.

"St James, which Bent said was one of her main concerns, the murder toll is 85. However, the murder toll in Kingston was 287 murders in the same period, which was three times as much and she said Kingston is absolutely safe.

"I have spent many years working with the police and to us, Kingston would be treated as a high-risk area and something be done about it," Harris continued.

tendai.franklyn-brown@gleanerjm.com

Montage shows a mob attacking a man accused of stealing a cellphone in Half-Way Tree on Tuesday. A plainclothes policeman came to his rescue. He did not discharge his firearm. - Photos by Ricardo Makyn/Staff Photographer