Few Awarded U.S. Asylum Since 9/11

by Marty Logan

(IPS) MONTREAL -- Sonam fled Tibet for Nepal so that she could freely practise her religion and become a Buddhist nun.

In Nepal she joined a convent, but then abruptly left it because she feared authorities would send her back to Tibet.

Sonam arrived at Washington, DC's Dulles International Airport in August 2003, travelling on a false passport. She was jailed on arrival and her application for parole was denied, despite the fact that a U.S. citizen, an expert on the plight of Tibetan nuns, visited her in prison and was willing to vouch for her.

On Nov. 18, an immigration judge ruled that Sonam was entitled to asylum, but as she was being congratulated, she was handcuffed and returned to prison while the U.S. attorney general contemplated an appeal of the decision.

On Dec. 18 an attorney filed that appeal; Sonam remains in jail.

Such treatment of people who seek asylum in the United States has increased following the administration's launch of its "war on terrorism" after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, says a new report by the Lawyer's Committee for Human Rights (LCHR).

"It has become increasingly apparent that the absence of essential due process safeguards in the asylum detention system has left asylum seekers at the mercy of a new approach: routine, and sometimes blanket, refusals to release asylum seekers rather than meaningful assessments of the need for detention in each individual case," according to 'In Liberty's Shadow: U.S. Detention of Asylum Seekers in the Era of Homeland Security'.

Topping the list of problems is what appears to be a new policy of blanket denial of parole applications in some U.S. states, "though no such policy has been made public," says LCHR.

Furthermore, asylum seekers are often subject to detention without review by the justice system. Other immigrants, it points out, are granted that review.

LCHR says the report is based on information gleaned over one year of monitoring the departments of Homeland Security (DHS) and Justice, a survey of lawyers who work with asylum seekers and interviews with the individuals themselves.

The group says the United States began closing the door on asylum seekers in 1996, when it started a policy of "expedited removal and mandatory detention."

That meant immigration officials could reject asylum seekers at airports and other border points and order them removed; otherwise, they faced mandatory detention in prisons or detention centres.

"The lack of basic safeguards in the asylum detention system has meant that victims of religious and political persecution, rape and torture are unnecessarily detained for months and sometimes years in this country," according to the report.

Changes since 9/11 mean that getting freed from jail is proving even more difficult for many asylum seekers, it adds.

For instance, says LCHR, the administration has adopted new policies on detaining asylum seekers from 33 nations and two territories that have primarily Arab and Muslim populations -- part of what is known as Operation Liberty Shield -- as well as refugee applicants from Haiti.

"In both cases, asylum seekers were deprived of meaningful assessments of the need for continued detention and in both cases 'security' was cited as a justification for the blanket detention measures," says the report.

It quotes DHS Secretary Tom Ridge defending the policy on Mar. 18, 2003: "We just want to make sure that those who are seeking asylum, number one, are who they say they are and, two, are legitimately seeking refuge in our country because of political repression at home, not because they choose to cause us harm or bring destruction to our shores".

"This, however," says the report, "is exactly what individualised parole decisions were designed to do -- the parole criteria specifically require an assessment of identity and prohibit the release of anyone who presents a danger".

In March, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers said in a letter to U.S. officials, "Detention of asylum seekers should be the exception, not the rule, and should be based on an individualised assessment of the security risk the person poses".

A UNHCR press release pointed out that, "U.S. asylum law and the 1951 Refugee Convention exclude any persons engaged in terrorist acts from refugee protection", making the new policy unnecessary.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) backs the stance of the UNHCR, stating, "Detention should not be used if there are effective monitoring mechanisms, such as reporting obligations that offer a viable alternative to detention. When detention is necessary, it should last for only a 'minimal' period."

DHS Spokesman Bill Strassberger told IPS the policies attached to Operation Liberty Shield ended about six weeks after they were established. "All those who had been detained were given a case-by-case review."

He added, "I can categorically say that there is no blanket 'no-release' policy" for asylum-seekers in detention.

According to the UNHCR, more than 393,000 people are now seeking asylum in the United States.

In a telephone conference call Thursday, two of those seekers, from Ukraine, described how they were jailed for three years, released in Pennsylvania state after a judge decided they risked torture if returned to Ukraine, and then detained again after the DHS appealed that decision.

"To us it was a big surprise (to be detained) because they met us so well at JFK airport," said Oleksiy Galushka, who was held with his friend Viktor Odnovyun.

"They told us, 'we're going to send you to one place where you can eat and take a shower'. Victor asked them, 'for how long?' They told us, 'a couple of weeks -- until we decide your case', and we were stuck in (jail) for three and a half years."

The men say they fled Ukraine in 1998 "to avoid beatings, arrest and interrogation" by security forces because of their work with non-governmental organisations.

They are now being held in a jail in Queens, in greater New York City.

LCHR Asylum Programme Director Eleanor Acer said Thursday that the DHS is increasingly appealing decisions to grant parole to asylum seekers.

"The system for detaining asylum seekers lacks so many safeguards that it's really open to abuse," she added.

The study recommends the government take certain steps to eliminate the problems facing asylum seekers. "First, create a new high-level refugee protection position in the Office of (DHS) Secretary Tom Ridge".

"Second, give asylum seekers the chance to have their detention reviewed by an immigration judge, like other immigration detainees. Third, put the official parole criteria for asylum seekers into formal regulations."

Strassberger said those suggestions are under review, and that the DHS "remains committed to providing a safe haven" for those seeking asylum.

Surprisingly, Odnovyun says his experience in the United States has not soured him on the country. "I don't think it changed my mind and attitude to the United States but it changed my attitude to detention, to being in prison".

"But since I saw the United States in Pennsylvania, my attitude has remained the same for those people, for my friends, for (the) society".