The latest on deportations and drugs in Tonga

A Tongan drug bust this month has shone a spotlight on transnational criminal links in the Pacific, just as the island nation is set to host regional leaders for annual talks. Transnational crime is expected to be high on the agenda.

Two police operations at multiple locations in Tongatapu seized 6.1 kilograms of methamphetamine, along with cash and money counting machines, and made 17 arrests, including one man deported from Australia over alleged links to the Commancheros motorcycle gang.

Deportations for criminal activity are a contentious issue regionally, blamed for the spread of criminality learned in deporting states. The Australian-based Comancheros have a form for deporting members to New Zealand from Australia who become involved in transnational crime.

Tonga has seen 1,010 people return from overseas crimes since 1998, the majority since 2010. Most are from the United States, but New Zealand and Australia are also major deporting states. Most have spent little of their lives in Tonga, but retain their citizenship.

In Tonga it is a common saying that deported people are taught to be criminals abroad, in the countries where they grew up and where ‘social problems actually originate’.

It complicates regional relations, as Australia, New Zealand and the United States are not only deporting states but also seek to become key security and development partners in the Pacific.

In this latest case, the accused man, 43-year-old Eneasi Taumoefolau, is alleged to have not lived in Tonga since his family moved to Australia when he was seven or eight. He was deported from Australia in October 2022, shortly after the borders reopened due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Although an influx of deportations was expected at the time, limited reintegration support was available. Dare to Dream, a local NGO that specifically supports deported people, had to rent vehicles to welcome new arrivals at the airport. This provided a crucial initial engagement to help people get on the right path. But slow information flows and difficulties finding rental cars meant that the group was only able to pick up six of the 21 arrivals between the border reopening and February 2023. Government funding for a vehicle by July 2024 will help alleviate this pressure, but it is only part of the reintegration challenge.

Considerable local blame is placed on the deporting state for a lack of support for countries such as Tonga. It complicates regional relations, where Australia, New Zealand and the United States are not only deporting states but also aspire to be the main security and development partners in the Pacific. However, funding for reintegration agencies for deported people is often refused by diplomats, making them financially unsustainable.

Experience in Samoa provides a valuable lesson. The quasi-governmental Samoa Returnees Charitable Trust has received government funding for its activities since 2020 and its members (deportees) have a very low recorded recidivism rate. Law enforcement costs are therefore significantly reduced because of the early investment in social support.

Instead, a lack of support and other factors increase the risk of recidivism.

In Tonga, deportees often turn to drugs and alcohol to numb themselves. There are limited mental health services in Tonga, where drug-related disorders account for 40% of psychiatric admissions and the Salvation Army’s rehabilitation efforts are struggling. Unfortunately, with no other employment opportunities, some deportees become involved in the domestic drug supply, and “return to what they know.” Small-scale drug dealing accounts for the vast majority of recidivism among returning deportees.

Other repeat offenses included manslaughter in 2015, and other assaults, burglary, and fraud—all domestic crimes. While there has long been talk in law enforcement circles about the risk of deported individuals becoming involved in transnational criminal activity, although this is the first reported arrest of a deported individual engaging in transnational criminal activity upon return to the Pacific. Eventual escalation to transnational criminality was likely, but alternative support networks and employment opportunities would have reduced this risk of recidivism.

In the latter case, of the 17 arrests, only one person had been deported. The targeting of newly arrived deportees is what civil society groups describe as “vultures” – “because they sit there and watch, if we are slow, they will break the person and recruit them into their criminal gang, and then they start doing all sorts of things… so it’s like a competition between us and the criminals”. It is alleged that the importation of drugs in this case was arranged by a person already incarcerated in Tonga’s prison system.

Also not surprisingly, both a local customs officer and a prison officer were among those arrested. Tonga has a history of state-embedded actors facilitating transnational criminal activity, most notably in February when a senior Tongan bank official was found with almost 10 kilograms of methamphetamine at his office at the Reserve Bank, and another 5 kilograms at home. These are Tongans (not deported, but with some status) who were already involved in criminal activity and bribery.

Tonga definitely has a drug problem and the solution must be multifaceted. The reintegration of deported people must be supported in a sustainable way to reduce the risk of recidivism, and local corruption that facilitates illicit drug movements must be tackled.

Both measures require more than just police action; they require a response from the entire government and civil society, not only for the benefit of Tongan society, but also for the benefit of the people being deported.