Hundreds
of Salvadorans Deported by USA Killed Or
Abused
At least 200 Salvadoran migrants and asylum
seekers have been killed, raped or tortured
after being deported back to El Salvador by the
United States government which is turning a
blind eye to widely known dangers, a new
investigation reveals. Human Rights Watch has
documented 138 deported Salvadorans murdered by
gang members, police, soldiers, death squads and
ex-partners between 2013 and 2019. The majority
were killed within two years of deportation by
the same perpetrators they had tried to escape
by seeking safety in the US. The report,
Deported to Danger: United States deportation
policies expose Salvadorans to death and abuse,
also identifies more than 70 others who were
subjected to beatings, sexual assault and
extortion – usually at the hand of gangs – or
who went missing after being returned. El
Salvador, the most densely populated country in
Central America with just over 6 million
citizens, has one of the world’s highest rates
of homicide and sexual violence. In addition,
almost 11,000 people were registered missing
during the last decade - more than the number of
people who disappeared during the 1979-1992
civil war.
Read more: Nina Lakhani, Guardian, https://is.gd/fD0xO4
Continuing
Conflicts That Create Refugees - February 2020
Deteriorated Situations: Burkina Faso,
Mali, Niger, Cameroon, Central African Republic,
Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Somalia,
Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Venezuela,
Israel/Palestine, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, Saudi
Arabia, Yemen.
Conflict Risk Alerts: Central African
Republic, Somalia, South Sudan, Syria, Saudi
Arabia, Yemen.
In January, the security situation in the Sahel
deteriorated, especially in central Mali,
western Niger and northern Burkina Faso, where
suspected jihadists inflicted a heavy toll on
civilians. In Nigeria, Boko Haram stepped up
attacks and jihadist group Ansaru claimed its
first attack since 2013.
Al-Shabaab intensified deadly raids in Kenya,
and violence rose in Cameroon’s Anglophone areas
and eastern DR Congo. Political tensions
increased in Somalia’s Galmudug state and
Guinea-Bissau, and security forces hardened a
crackdown in neighbouring Guinea.
February could see fighting erupt in Somalia’s
Gedo region, escalate in the Central African
Republic, and resurge in South Sudan where
leaders face a new deadline to form a unity
government.
The U.S.’s killing of Soleimani caused U.S.-Iran
tensions to soar, and Iraq felt the brunt of the
fallout. Fighting intensified in northern Yemen
and across the Yemen-Saudi Arabia border raising
the risk that violence spread.
Fighting looks set to escalate in north west
Syria as Turkish forces strike back against
government troops. The U.S.’s release of its
peace plan for Israel-Palestine triggered an
angry backlash and in Lebanon clashes between
protesters and security forces intensified.
Venezuela’s political crisis deepened, but on
the up side, the security situation in El
Salvador improved, a key insurgent group in
Thailand joined formal peace talks, Kosovo’s
three-month political deadlock ended, and
February could see a deal between Ethiopia,
Egypt and Sudan to resolve their dispute over
the Nile waters.
Read more: International Crisis Group, https://www.crisisgroup.org/crisiswatch
Home
Office Seeks Man’s Deportation to Country he
Never Visited
In the recent case of Akinyemi v SSHD (No. 2)
[2019] EWCA Civ 2098, the Court of Appeal was
faced with an unusual set of facts in the
context of the deportation of a foreign
national. The appellant was born in the UK to
Nigerian parents and had spent his entire life
in the UK. The court had to decide whether the
Home Office’s decision to deport him to Nigeria,
a country he had never even visited, but of
which he was nonetheless a national by virtue of
his parents, was proportionate.
The appellant was a serial offender with a
string of criminal convictions, including
causing death by dangerous driving and
possession of drugs with intent to supply. After
his father acquired indefinite leave to remain,
he could have applied for British citizenship
under the British Nationality Act 1981, but
failed to do so. With the subsequent
introduction of the Home Office’s severely
restrictive policy on the good character
requirement for nationality applications, the
appellant became unable to apply for British
citizenship because of his inability to satisfy
this requirement on account of his repeat
offending.
This case had an extensive procedural history,
reaching the Court of Appeal for the second time
in a few years. Initially, the Secretary of
State for the Home Department (“SSHD”) had
ordered the appellant’s deportation back in
2014. That decision was eventually set aside by
the Court of Appeal on the basis that the judge
in the Upper Tribunal (“UT”) had misdirected
themselves, mistakenly holding that since the
appellant was in the country unlawfully, little
weight had to be given to any private life he
had established in the UK, as prescribed under
the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act
2002. In fact, it was held that the judge was
wrong to conclude the appellant’s presence in
the UK was unlawful, and that he was entitled to
apply for British citizenship for many years,
until the introduction of the good character
requirement for registration applications, but
that he had simply failed to do so. Thereafter,
he remained in the country without breaking
immigration law, but he no longer qualified for
citizenship because of his criminal convictions.
As a result, the case was sent to the UT for
reconsideration.
Read more: Gherson Immigration, https://is.gd/6OA5TR
Asylum Research Consultancy (ARC)
Country of Information Update Vol. 210
This document provides an update of UK Country
Guidance case law, UK Home Office publications
and developments in refugee producing countries
(focusing on those which generate the most
asylum seekers in the UK) between 21 January and
3 February 2020.
https://is.gd/MXcUjP
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Death
of Immigration Detainee Prince Kwabena
The inquest into the death of Prince Kwabena
Fosu opened on Monday 3rd February. Prince died
at Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre
(IRC) on the morning of 30 October 2012. The
inquest had been postponed pending consideration
by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) of
criminal charges against the private companies
responsible for Prince’s care. Prince, a
Ghanaian national, was 31 when he died. He is
survived by his wife, child and parents. Prince
had been in Harmondsworth for just six days and
was segregated throughout that time, before
being found naked and without bedding in a cell
peppered with debris.
The CPS declined to bring corporate manslaughter
charges, but on 14 April 2017 authorised
criminal charges against GEO Group UK Ltd, which
then ran Harmondsworth, and Nestor Primecare
Services Ltd, which provided healthcare
services. The charges were for a breach to
section 3 of the Health and Safety at Work Act
1974. However, that decision was reversed 18
months later meaning that no criminal
proceedings would be brought. Primecare has
since gone into administration.
The family look forward to the full
consideration of the actions of all those who
were tasked with Prince’s welfare. They hope
that the inquest will finally determine the
circumstances and cause of Prince’s death, and
go some way to ensuring that no other detainee
dies in such inhumane and degrading conditions.
Over a year before Prince’s death, Brian
Dalrymple, 35, died in Colnbrook IRC in July
2011, having been transferred there from
Harmondsworth just a few days earlier. His death
involved many of the same staff, and the inquest
in 2014 uncovered failures in recognising and
responding to signs of mental ill health and
distress.
Timeline:
On 30 October 2012 Prince Fosu died in
Harmondsworth Immigration Removal Centre.
On 15 May 2014 the police provided the CPS with
a case file, for consideration of criminal
charges.
On 3 April 2017 the CPS announced their decision
that criminal charges will be brought against
GEO and Primecare under the Health and Safety at
Work Act. On 30 October 2018 the CPS reversed
that decision.
Combating
Human Trafficking and Disappearances of
Refugee Children
The Council of Europe should “do more to combat
human trafficking and to ensure that its legal
standards are adequate and implemented by all
member States”, the Parliamentary Assembly
declared today during a joint debate.
In an adopted resolution, based on the report
prepared by Vernon Coaker (United Kingdom, SOC),
the Assembly noted with deep concern the high
numbers of victims of human trafficking in
Europe, “of which the largest proportion
concerns the exploitation of the prostitution of
others, forced labour and organ trafficking as
well as trafficking for the purpose of forced
marriage and illegal adoption”.
Preventing trafficking and providing protection
to victims “must be of highest priority”, the
parliamentarians said. For this purpose, member
States should in particular ensure that victims
of human trafficking are not penalised, that
they receive adequate health services and legal
assistance, and that witness protection
programmes exist for their testimony against
human traffickers.
During the same debate, the Assembly called on
national parliaments and governments of the
Member States to do "whatever is necessary and
required in the best interests of the child" to
avoid the disappearance of thousands of child
refugees and migrants around the world.
Read more: Council of Europe,
https://is.gd/nRwD89
Unlawful
Detention Deemed Even Less Graceful
This briefing will doubtless be an important aid
for immigration detainees seeking to challenge
their continued detention for no other reason
than administrative delay. It will also put even
more pressure on the Home Office and Probation
Service to ensure that practical arrangements
for effecting release start to be considered
once release becomes a realistic possibility.
In AC (Algeria) v Secretary of State for the
Home Department [2020] EWCA Civ 36, the Court of
Appeal gave a trenchant warning that once it
ceases to be lawful to detain an individual, the
‘grace period’ allowed within which to make
arrangements for release can only be a short
period. Moreover, the reasons for which any such
grace period is required will be be closely
scrutinised by the courts.
Unsurprisingly, there continue to be a very
significant number of judicial review and county
court claims for unlawful detention brought by
current and former immigration detainees. What
is perhaps more interesting is that despite the
relatively well-understood law governing the
lawfulness of immigration detention the precise
legal limits of the Home Secretary’s power to
detain for immigration purposes continue to be
tested and developed.
Read more: Dominic Ruck Keene, UK Human Rights
Blog, https://is.gd/eLuftC
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