INVESTIGATION INTO CLAIMS OF ABUSE ON ASYLUM-SEEKERS
By Robert Verkaik
Independent.co.uk
Tuesday, 30 September 2008
Claims by hundreds of asylum-seekers that they have been beaten or
abused by British guards during their detention and removal from
this country are to be independently investigated for the first time,
The Independent has learnt.
The Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, has appointed Nuala O’Loan,
the former Police Ombudsman of Northern Ireland, to conduct an
investigation into mistreatment allegations first reported in this
paper last year. Dame Nuala, who won praise and criticism from
Catholics and Protestants for her robust style in dealing with
complaints against the police and led the inquiry into the handling
of the Omagh bombing, has been given a wide remit to reopen cases of
alleged brutality. She has also been asked to report on any failures
of a system that allows private security guards to use "reasonable
force" in restraining asylum-seekers.
The Home Secretary’s intervention follows the publication of a
detailed report in July that revealed nearly 300 cases of alleged
physical assault and racial abuse in the past four years. The report,
entitled Outsourcing Abuse, raised concerns about the control and
use of private security firms in the detention and deportation of
some of the most vulnerable people in British society.
Nearly 50 of the complainants contacted by the researchers20and
lawyers gave permission for the Government to reinvestigate or begin
fresh investigations into their claims. Their names have been passed
to the UK Border Agency.
Last night, the authors of the report welcomed Dame Nuala’s
appointment.
Emma Ginn, of Medical Justice, which helps victims of abuse, said:
"The Home Office had previously described allegations as ‘unsupported
assertions’. We note their change of tone now that national and global
organisations have picked up on the issue."
Romain Ngouabeu, of the National Coalition of Anti-Deportation
Campaigns, added: "We continue to get allegations of assaults,
including one on the day we published our report."
Diane Abbott, Labour MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington, said
last night: "I am very pleased to hear that Nuala O’Loan has been
appointed to look into the allegation of abuse against immigrant. This
is an incredibly serious matter that deserves nothing less than the
most rigorous of investigations. I look forward to the results of the
investigation – both in terms of justice being done and in terms of
a concrete improvement in the way immigrants are treated while being
detained or deported."
Many of the allegations, often supported by medical evidence, concern
the use of excessive force in the removal of failed asylum-seekers
on a scheduled flight. In some cases, pilots have refused to take off
while the refugee is still on board, citing concer ns for the safety
of passengers.
Noreen Nafuna, a 38-year-old Ugandan woman, came to the UK three years
ago after claiming to have been detained and beaten by the Ugandan
army. Her application for asylum was turned down and she was held
at Yarl’s Wood removal centre in Bedfordshire before being taken to
Gatwick by private security guards employed by the Home Office.
"I was carried up to the plane. I started screaming when I was brought
to the top of the stairs. I was only wearing underpants and a bra. A
jacket was placed over my neck and I was held around the neck so I
couldn’t make a noise."
In her complaint about her treatment, Ms Nafuna recounts: "Two of
them sat on me. One of them placed her hands over my mouth to stop
me shouting out. I was finding it hard to breathe. The plane was
not full of passengers. A lady in a red suit came up with another
woman. I heard her ask if I was still alive as I had stopped moving
or making any sounds. They got off me then so I sat up. I was crying
again. Then other passengers became aware of what was going on and
told the officers to leave me alone. Everyone saw me bleeding.
Eventually they called the pilot and he came up and said, ‘We are
not taking her.’"
Her complaint was eventually upheld by the Home Office after her
legal action for assault was settled by the security company.
In another case, HM, a 16-year-old g irl from Rwanda who claimed
asylum after coming to Britain as a sex-trafficking victim, says
she was assaulted by guards who removed her from a shower unit in
a detention centre. She says she suffered bruising when she was
handcuffed from behind in a semi-naked state and taken to a holding
cell. Her claim was investigated and dismissed by the Home Office,
although there was criticism of the way the guards had handled her.
The Home Office says that it properly investigates all complaints of
such a nature but it does not recognise the large numbers contained
in the report.
Asylum abuse claims
*In July last year, RH, an asylum-seeker from Burundi, was taken
from his room in a detention centre by immigration escorts. He was
handcuffed, and his legs were crossed at the ankle before being tied
together with tape.
After struggling on his way to a van bound for Heathrow, he says he
was beaten and kicked by the escorts before being dragged half-naked
on to the plane. During the alleged assault, his handcuffs caused
him to incur severe injuries to his wrists which were clearly visible.
The pilot came to investigate, and told the escorts he would not fly
Mr RH out of the country in his current physical state. Other cases
include that of Amos Alajaibo, a Nigerian who says he was beaten
unconscious by guards after admitting he had talked to the media
during a protest, and an Algerian man who was allegedly assaulted
while in a wheelchair.
Suren Khachatryan, an Armenian, suffered a punctured lung after
allegedly being stamped on by his immigration escorts in the back of
a security van.
Another detainee said he was "bound up like a parcel" by officials
trying to force him on to a deportation flight. None of these
complaints has been upheld.