22 July 1999 Edition

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The second prong of attack - The `Trafficking' Bill

In the second part of a report on the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland and the EU, Róisín De Rosa examines the pending Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Bill, 1999, and highlights examples of abuses of refugees in Europe and here in Ireland.

The Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Bill, 1999, is another Bill queuing for time before the Oireachtas. It is the other prong of what many fear to be the Department of Justice's approach to the whole question of refugees - stop them coming here in the first place.

If the Immigration Bill (see last week's An Phoblacht) is to get rid of refugees, the Trafficking Bill is to stop them ever being admitted here.

The stated purpose of the Bill is, of course, to protect asylum-seekers from unscrupulous traffickers, who often can hold refugees and their families to ransom and impose terrible conditions during transportation.

As Vanya Harte of the National Federation of Campaigns Against Racism points out though:

``The experience in other EU states has shown that, far from decreasing the extent of trafficking, such laws result in traffickers putting immigrants at great risk, even to the point of sacrificing lives in an attempt to avoid stiffer penalties.''

The Bill criminalises the transporters of asylum seekers to Ireland, imposing an unlimited fine, jail terms of up to 10 years, and/or forfeiture of vehicle (ship, truck, aircraft or other vehicle) with its equipment.

The offence applies to acts done or omissions made outside, as well as inside the 26-County state. The Bill applies to `illegal immigrants', who are defined in the Bill as a non-national who seeks to enter, or enters the state unlawfully. Even if the immigrant is granted refugee status in the final outcome, the person who facilitated their entry has still committed an offence.

And how can any refugee go about getting travel documentation and visas to enter this country legally? And how can anyone apply for asylum unless they were first to arrive in Ireland?

The Bill, when passed, will certainly ensure that few, if any, refugees end up applying for asylum here. No airline or ship is likely to allow amongst their passengers, people who, once arrived in Ireland, will be illegal immigrants, and therefore cause of a substantial fine or confiscation of the vehicle and or its equipment. The airlines will pursue the practice already well established for entry to other countries, of checking visa documentation prior to embarkation.

The recent experience of Polish backpackers who were detained at Dublin Airport and not allowed to holiday in this country is an indication of how far immigration authorities at Dublin Airport have gone.

Non-nationals, who are without visas at the point of entry - irrespective of whether or not they wish to apply for asylum - are already illegal immigrants and will not be allowed to `land' at all. That is the design. To stop them ever coming here in the first place.

Forcible Deportations in Europe to maintain `Fortress Europe'.


The policy of forced deportations from European states has led to a truly horrific pattern of death amongst refugees and people seeking asylum.

Many have died trying to escape to a safe country, forced by such legislation as Ireland is about to introduce through the Illegal Immigrant Trafficking Bill to take appalling risks. These include hiding in cramped, locked containers, without air, water, or food, or drowning whilst attempting to jump a boat or escape detention in the place they seek asylum.

Many have committed suicide when refused asylum, knowing that they faced deportation back to jail and torture. There have been many suicides amongst asylum seekers who are held in detention centres for months in appalling conditions of brutality (see box below on detention centres in one EU member state).

An internet site at (http://www/xs4all.nl/-united) lists some 600 refugees who have died, between 1993 and February 1998, in EU countries.

Each death is reputably sourced. Some have no name. They are simply refugees from outside of the EU. It makes appalling reading.

A few of these deaths have hit the headlines recently. Only a few.

Some deportations


On 28 May, a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, Amir Ageeb, died after a struggle with German police forcing him onto a Lufthansa flight to Cairo.

Amir had been bound hand and foot and forced to wear a motorcycle helmet. Border police forcibly held Amir down in his seat. Shortly after the plane took off, it was noticed that Amir had stopped breathing. Amir was dead by the time the plane made an emergency landing at Frankfurt Airport.

As a result of the outcry following Amir's death, all deportations have been temporarily suspended. However many non-EU nationals, most of whom are detained in German jails, have not been released and they await deportation.

On May Day, this year, a Nigerian asylum seeker, Marcus Omafuma, died during deportation from Austria to Bulgaria. Marcus had been bundled onto a Balkan Air flight in chains with his mouth sealed with gummed tape. The ministry in Vienna subsequently claimed that he had died because he put up ``heavy resistance'' on the plane.

Only last September, Semira Adamu, a 20-year-old Nigerian, was forced onto a plane to Togo. She died of a brain haemorrhage caused by asphyxiation resulting from a pillow being placed over her face to subdue her protest. Semira had been forced in Nigeria to marry a 65-year-old man who already had three wives. He was known to be violent and had already beaten a fourth wife so badly that she died of her injuries. Semira's death occurred in the fifth attempt of the Belgian authorities to deport her back to Nigeria (see box).

Action by Airline Employees


In some European countries, the death of a deportee has led to temporary suspension of deportations. In other cases, airlines have refused to transport deportees, as with Belgium's Sabena Airlines But in general, the response is the same as the experience in Austria, where it is proposed that the anti-riot police, the WEGA, will be used to carry out deportations.

Ireland's Immigration Bill does not state that such treatment of deportees is illegal nor that those guards or immigration officials concerned will be prosecuted. The Bill merely states that resisting deportation is a felony and will be liable to a fine not exceeding £1,500 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one year.

However, the Bill adds that any person who has been excluded from the state, who has been arrested and detained, may be placed on a ship, train, road vehicle or aircraft, by a member of the Garda Síochána. They shall be deemed in lawful custody whilst so detained and until the carrier leaves the state. The person in charge of that carrier shall, at the instigation of a garda or immigration officer, take a person to be deported on board, and shall accommodate and maintain them during the journey.

It is not every carrier that will appreciate such interference with their passenger lists nor every employee who would be willing to take an active or passive part in the sort of forcible deportations from EU countries which have, in too many cases, resulted in the deaths of people who vainly sought asylum in the `safety' of the EU.


Conditions for refugees detained in Belgium


Semira Adamu was held in a Belgian refugee detention centre before her forcible deportation and death on 21 July 1998. She died on the fifth attempt by the Belgian authorities to deport her. Five thousand people attended Semira's funeral. As a result, the Belgian national carrier, Sabena Airlines, refused to carry any more deportees.

An interview with a friend of Semira's describes conditions in the detention centres where refugees are held whilst their application for asylum are considered:

``There are isolation cells for anyone resisting deportation. Straitjackets are used Children are issued with valium if they are nervous. At both Centre 127 and Vottem there are double gates, six metres high, and between the gates security dogs roam. There is razor wire over the gates.

``Violence directed at people who refuse to be deported is constant. Racism is prevalent in the centres, both during deportation attempts and in the entire process of asylum-seeking. People are beaten, women are arbitrarily handcuffed or ankle-cuffed. People are left for days in isolation cells. Children are beaten up and people are tied to chairs or in bags so they can't move.

``Asylum seekers are brought to the plane, usually handcuffed, and sometimes with their mouths bound with tape so they can't scream as they are put on board.''

Belgium is a member of the European Union.

The EU is not only committed to upholding the UN 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, but also to the principle of non-refoulement, (that refugees should not be deported to countries where they may be persecuted). The EU is also officially committed to the standardisation of the treatment of refugees across member states.


Illegal garda deportation - stopped by injunction


Ekundoyo is a 29-year-old refugee from Nigeria who escaped from jail and fled to Ireland. Last week, he was given a permit of residence, to the delight of all who have met him.

But this only happened as a result of the prompt action of the National Federation of Campaigns Against Racism and the Nigerian Asylum Association (NAA), who stopped his illegal deportation by Irish authorities at the eleventh hour by obtaining a court injunction. Ekundoyo's appeal was still pending when gardaí illegally removed him to the airport to put him on a plane.

Ekundoyo's first application for asylum was rejected. He appealed the decision and was waiting for determination. He went to the Department of Justice to get his identification card renewed. At the department he was taken to a room where two gardaí told him that his deportation papers had been processed and that he was being returned to Belgium. They took him to Mountjoy Prison, where he was detained. He contacted the NAA.

A report of what happened appeared in several papers. One description reads:

``The police arrived a day before his deportation was scheduled and he was brought directly to the airport, without even being allowed to call by to where he stayed to collect his belongings. In protest, Ekundoyo took of his shirt. He was handcuffed. When he started to scream, his shirt was stuffed in his mouth.

``He says he was pushed to the ground. He was thumped and called a black bastard. He was struggling on his way across the tarmac to the plane when one of the crew took the initiative, telling the police that he would not be allowed onto the plane. In response, the four officers involved picked him up bodily, carried him forcibly through the airport and took him back to Mountjoy.''

Many people who work in the airlines might be very reluctant to aid or abet deportation of refugees, but they may feel unable to act for fear of being in breach of contract with their employer. No contract, however, requires an employee to perpetrate or aid to perpetration of an illegal act.

There is no question that here was an attempted and flagrant abuse of the rights of a refugee. Had it not been for the swift action of the refugee groups in seeking an injunction and the stand of the crew member, an entirely illegal deportation would have taken place. No one would have known anything about it. Ekundoyo himself just another statistic on a shameful list of human degradation and abuse. All in aid of maintaining a racially pure and white `Fortress Europe'.

Is this what we want?

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