In her first 100 days in office, President Hilda Heine vowed to address the deportation issue that has been problematic to the Marshallese community. This resulted in the creation of the RMI Taskforce on Deportation.

The Deportation Taskforce consists of members from the following offices: Attorney General, Immigration, Marshall Islands Police Department, Sheriff from the Majuro Atoll Local Government Office, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, member of the deportee community and Chairperson Ebon Senator Marie Milne.

The term “deportee” has been mentioned in almost all Nitjela sessions by concerned leaders time and time again, prompting the government to take actions through the newly-created Taskforce.

The Taskforce, however, is in its early stages and has taken over nine months to create its Standard Operating Procedures, which is mandated by law in order to function.

Chair Marie and Deportee Liaison Riem Simon have attempted to push for more action from their government counterparts and both are frustrated with the snail-pace of developments of the Taskforce.

“Are we waiting for another criminal incident or death for the government to really recognize the need for the Taskforce,” Riem Simon said in a frustrated manner. “All these criminal incidents in the past year and a half stem from individuals who have been deported from the US,” he said. 

Riem has been championing the need to establish a halfway house for the past seven years. Riem is an exemplary member of the deportee community and has turned his life around since his involuntary return from the US. 

“I have learned a lot of experience from being institutionalized during my incarceration,” Riem said. “I went through the halfway system and I believe RMI must prioritize the creation of a system to tackle the deportation issue,” he said.

To date, individuals who are sent back from the US through the deportation process are dropped off at the Amata Kabua International Airport by US Marhsals. There is no process in place after the drop off. The halfway house would cater to this gap and in addition, create an accountability system, which is also non-existence.

Majuro has reported stabbings, murder, kidnap, theft and drug usage among deported individuals in the past two months alone.