Security troubles across the Caribbean region bear similarities to issues confronted in Bermuda but on a considerably larger scale, Home Affairs Minister Michael Fahy reported to the Senate.

Senator Fahy attended the one-day Caribbean/United States High Level Citizen Security Dialogue on June 5 as an observer, but told the Upper House that such trips were useful for fostering connections and “putting names to faces”.

The gathering in the Bahamas also marked the fifth anniversary of a US security programme, the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative, which has had challenges in boosting security partnerships. Increasing crime and violence is straining the region’s resourcing and causing a backlog of criminal cases awaiting trial, Sen Fahy said, while unemployment ranges from 25 to 40 per cent.

An increase in homicides by an average of 165 per cent was observed from 2000 to 2010.

“The consensus among the countries represented was that the low rate of educational attainment, availability of jobs, social exclusion, were making it more likely that youth would become either victims of violence or perpetrators of the same,” Sen Fahy said.

Frustration was evident, he added, over the lack of collaboration and sharing of information, with some countries “still operating in silos”.