Freedom sought, freedom denied

By Hiranthi Fernando

The Deportation Camp located be-hind the Mirihana Police Station is fenced in by barbed wire. It is under the control of the Immigration & Emigration Department, although manned by the Mirihana Police. The facilities available to the detainees are few. Although sometimes entire families are detained here, there is no separate place for the women to sleep. Women and children are taken into the police premises for the night. There is no place even for visitors to sit and talk to the detainees. The toilet facilities are also inadequate especially when the camp is full as it is now.

"We are trying to improve the facilities at the Deportation Camp," said Controller of Immigration and Emigration Lakshman Perera. "However, we cannot encourage the detainees to stay too long. They have broken the immigration law of the country. If we don't keep it under control, we will have a colony of refugees. Sri Lanka cannot give refugee status to these people."

The camp is a transit place for foreign nationals who have committed immigration offences until they are deported. Also, for those who have had valid visas but had their visas cancelled when they committed an offence. When foreign nationals are detained at the camp, the respective embassies are informed. Usually the embassies issue travel documents for them to return to their countries. "However, some do not want to go back to their countries," Mr. Perera said. "They are using Sri Lanka as a launching pad to go to other countries."

The Mirihana camp is the successor to the Slave Island detention centre where for many years illegal immigrants from India (Kalla-thonis) were housed.

In the grim confines of the Deportation Camp at the Mirihana police station, Hassan,(not his name) a young engineer from Iraq, sits contemplating his plight. He yearns for the day he could be reunited with his family again. Yet, will he ever have that opportunity? It is over one year since Hassan was detained at the camp. Will he find a way out of this situation or must he live there for the rest of his days? For Hassan, the future seems bleak.

Hassan was fleeing from Iraq, in an effort to seek asylum in another country, when he was arrested at Katunayake by Lankan authorities. His story goes back to 1991, when he says his brother was arrested and clapped in an Iraqi jail along with numerous other Iraqis. "I was working in the Army in Baghdad maintaining one of Saddam Hussein's underground bomb shelters at the time my brother was arrested," Hassan said. "However, sometime later, I was sent away to another city in South Iraq to work in a garment factory. Since I am a Shiite Muslim, Saddam did not want us to work in special places. Although it was not my line I continued working there hoping to get my brother released. He was in prison for six years. Nobody was allowed to see him. I had some friends in the government and the police and I kept asking them not to shoot my brother. I tried my best to get him released and paid much money to many people but failed in my efforts."

In 1997, Hassan's brother was shot by the Special Police. His father was warned that Hassan too was in danger. So he fled to Jordan with the help of forged documents. "I had to sell everything I had to flee the country in a rush, leaving behind my wife and two small children," Hassan said sadly. "Now my parents help them to carry on. They also live in fear, sleeping in different houses at night."

After six months in Jordan, Hassan says he obtained a forged Netherlands passport through an agent. Armed with this, he boarded a flight for Sri Lanka. In Colombo, he went to a travel agent and purchased an airline ticket to London. He had almost boarded the flight when he was stopped by the Sri Lankan CID. "When they questioned me, I told them I was not from the Netherlands but from Iraq," Hassan recalled. Local immigration authorities confirmed that Colombo is a transit point for many Iraqis seeking refugee status in western countries.

Arrested and charged in court with illegal entry Hassan was ordered to pay a fine of Rs.10,000. As he was unable to pay he was sentenced to a month's imprisonment. Since his release on April 9 last year from the Negombo prison , he has been detained in the Mirihana camp pending deportation. "I have written many letters to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the Sri Lankan authorities, but I have had no reply," Hassan said. "I am seeking refugee status in a safe country because I cannot return home. If I return to Iraq, I will be killed just as my brother was killed. If I am deported to Jordan, it will be my death as Jordan will hand me over to the Iraqi authorities.

"I have documents to prove my statements and the danger to my life," Hassan continued. "I am not a criminal or a person in search of a better economical standpoint. I am a victim of a brutal dictatorship. I cannot contact my family directly, and I fear for them also."

Hassan is among about thirty others currently detained at the Deportation Camp. Another young Iraqi who has overstayed his visa came there four months before Hassan. The others are mostly from India, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the Philippines. One Chinese has been at the camp for nine years, having no place to go. He is not acknowledged by either Mainland China or Taiwan.

This man known as Cha Chambo now cooks for the Mirihana Police. It was from this camp that Pfaffhauser, the notorious paedophile recently escaped. Several others too have escaped since the security is somewhat lax.

Bo Schak of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said he was aware of the Hassan case. "We have an arrangement under which we consider those desiring refugee status and intervene with the Immigration authorities. We try to find a third country willing to take them," Mr. Schak said. In the case of Hassan, they have reviewed his case again and again and feel that he does not merit the granting of refugee status. "We know he has been there too long but from our side, there is nothing much we can do for him. Perhaps the best option for him is to get back to Jordan," Mr. Schak said.

An Iraqi Embassy official said a one way ticket is issued in cases like this.

There seems little choice for Hassan and others in his position but to languish in the Deportation Camp indefinitely unless someone is willing to take an interest in their plight.

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