But when a person enters a country to seek relief from violations (war, hunger, torture, religious persecution) committed against him or her elsewhere, this person should be considered a victim, not a criminal. Why does it often happen then, that when such persons arrive in countries seeking asylum, they often are imprisoned like criminals? Why are they deprived of personal property, humiliated, separated from family members, and subjected to the arbitrary authority of immigration police? In fact, the degrading and inhumane actions of guards in detention centers are seldom scrutinized and rarely punished.
This sequence of events is neither logical nor moral; indeed, it highlights the double standard underlying the nation-state judicial system. Why is it that asylum-seekers are considered guilty until proven innocent?
Criminals with American "citizenship" are protected by United States national laws, but the safety of those coming in search of safe haven are not guaranteed by any laws. They remain, therefore, at the mercy of any person who is "authorized" to determine their destiny.
In other words, people seeking justice and assistance are punished by the state for being victims. Let the facts speak for themselves.
Rich and Mariam Fitzwilson arrived in the U.S. from Sudan, fleeing civil war and severe religious oppression and intending to apply for political asylum. At the Los Angeles airport, the husband and wife asked to speak with a representative of the United Nations who could assist them. The Fitzwilson family was informed that there is no U.N. office in Los Angeles, and they were then taken into custody by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials.
Upon arrival at a detention center in September 1997, Mr. Fitzwilson was separated from his wife and was not allowed any contact with her for three months. He was never informed as to where Ms. Fitzwilson was being held and when her hearing was scheduled. In a letter to the World Service Authority (WSA), Mr. Fitzwilson pleaded for assistance: "Please visit us in the detention to see many people with asylum problems who are kept here. And some don't have travel documents and they need any country which would receive them for asylum."
In another case, Gavrila Moldovan arrived at the Port of Long Beach in California as a "stowaway," escaping political persecution in Romania. Prior to his arrival in the United States, he spent some time in Germany, where he renounced his Romanian citizenship. However, INS officials attempted to coerce him to regain Romanian citizenship, which would have allowed his deportation back to Romania.
For over three years, Moldovan was kept in various INS detention facilities until he was finally transferred to the detention camp in San Pedro, California. Moldovan then wrote the World Service Authority, saying, "It is not a camp. It is a prison system. There are 110 people in the room." Shortly after that, without explanation, Moldovan was transferred to Kern County Jail. He wrote that "when I was transferred, I was not allowed to carry my legal papers with me. And now in this jail I am together with criminals.... If the WSA does not take action in my case, I'll be in jail forever. Please help me to take back my liberty."
Jalal Kharrat is a refugee from Syria who was imprisoned in Damascus due to his extensive involvement with an underground movement advocating human rights. He has been held in the INS Detention Center in Florence, Arizona, since March 1994. During this time, Kharrat has been in contact with the WSA, reporting that the detainees are regularly beaten into unconsciousness, denied medical care, and fed food that is often infested with worms, flies and roaches. He claims that visitors are rarely allowed, detainees are arbitrarily thrown into the "hole," the internal grievance procedures are useless, and guards insult and humiliate detainees because of their nationality and/or religion.
Another detainee in this facility came to the U.S. seeking asylum after he had been held prisoner by terrorists. Comparing that experience to his detention conditions in California, the man stated that the terrorists had treated him better.
The most recent letter from Kharrat, describing violent "disciplining" of detainees, is signed by 11 other people. Kharrat writes that "an INS officer should not have a power to punish.... In this INS detention center, if a detainee is accused of a wrongdoing, he is guilty. This detention center was founded...on a suspicion and fear of INS officer power."
These people, and many others, may spend years and years in detention camps for mere lack of documents or possession of the "wrong" documents. The most frightening aspect of their situation is that people become "lost" in this system. As soon as they step outside of their own national judicial system (which, ironically, may often be the cause of them fleeing their home country) in search of a better future for themselves and their children, they are no longer able to count on anyone to protect them from inhumane treatment.
The number of people forced to migrate from one place to another is growing every year as refugees flee regional wars around the globe. Over the last 15 years, conflicts in the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Bosnia, Rwanda, Sudan and Lebanon created millions of refugees. If it is true that existing international treaties, conventions and agreements are designed to handle the displaced population, why do hundreds of letters similar to the ones quoted above still pour into the WSA?
National judicial systems are unable to function in accord with one another because, by definition, they are doomed to be watchdogs for their own "national interests." Subsequently, tens of thousands of people in need of shelter in countries other than their native ones are being denied proper adjudication because they are seen as a threat to these national interests.
So much for "local" justice.
Justice is not that which protects one group of people and excludes everybody else. Justice should not be limited by regional, national or continental boundaries. To fully ensure justice for all, there should be a system that affords all humans due process of law. A World Judicial System would be one that protects world interests and is inclusive of everyone. This is the kind of system that Citizens of the World need and deserve.
Nonna Klimchenkova Crane is an intern in the Legal Dept. of the World Service Authority.
(Publisher's Note: Dozens of letters, like the ones cited above, cross Ms. Crane's desk. WSA attempts to offer assistance by issuing human rights documents and intervening with the INS on behalf of detainees. But the workload is increasing. Funds are desperately needed to add personnel to the department and to hire lawyers conversant with both human rights advocacy and immigration law.
Contributions to the World Citizen Foundation--tax-exempt status pending--can be directed to this vital endeavor.)