Status of the badly named ‘transmigrants’ in closed centres [05/04/2019]
We were again informed that several social assistants in closed centres use their influence to dissuade retainees to sign the handling by lawyers, promising them a rapid release if they do not get a lawyer’.
This prevents an ’emergency application’ which in most cases enables their release.
Remark by a lawyer: ‘the fact of getting a lawyer may in no way delay the release process of your friends. It is a wrong rumour that is being spread. The social assistants sometimes promise a release to avoid retainees getting a lawyer, but the appeal is running in the meantime. To me, it is a real obstacle to the access to justice.’
The aim of this step by the Foreigners office is to keep them in retention in order to deport them. After this period of 5 or 10 days when an emergency application is possible, the lawyers and retainees find themselves in hopeless situations where very few things are still possible on the juridical level, and it then becomes a real obstacle course to release them! The retainees risk staying in the closed centre for weeks, even for months, before being in most of the cases sent back to their Dublin country or to their country of origin.
The last months, particular pressure with threats of deportation has been put on certain nationalities:
– Around 20 Palestinians were arrested at the Foreigners office or in their open centre, and threatened with a deportation to their Dublin country, in that case Spain.
– Several Sudanese have been retained in closed centres for several weeks, with a threat to be deported to Sudan.
And the Foreigners Office dared: one Erythrean went through a first deportation attempt to Asmara in Erythrea following a negative answer to his asylum request! He followed the advice of his host and refused the deportation once at the airport (see also our advice here: http://www.gettingthevoiceout.org/how-to-stop-a-deportation/ ). He was very badly defended by a ghost lawyer. A new lawyer is now in charge of his record.
The situation as of 5 April 2019 based on the information received by lawyers and hosts:
February : 82 arrests
11 were released without the assistance of a lawyer in the days following their arrest
47 were released following the introduction of an emergency application by a lawyer
17 are still being retained in centres, a majority of which had refused the emergency application
7 were deported to their Dublin country during March
A woman was arrested in December and deported to Ghana in February
March : 85 arrests
7 were released without the intervention of a lawyer in the days following their arrest
47 were released following the introduction of an emergency application by a lawyer
31 arrested in March are still being retained, among whom 11 refused the assistance of a lawyer for an emergency application
Considering these figures, we may only advise our retained friends to very quickly get (within 5 or 10 days according to their record) a GOOD lawyer (!! several social assistants sometimes try to impose ‘ghost lawyers’!!). We may advise you some(gettingthevoiceout@riseup.net).
