Switzerland: Nigerian Asylum Seeker Dies During Deportation Process

By Elizabeth A. Conger
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe Desk

ZURICH, Switzerland – Swiss authorities have halted special deportation flights after a Nigerian asylum seeker died on the tarmac of the Zurich airport on Wednesday, March 17, 2010. The twenty-nine-year-old deportee, a convicted drug dealer, was one of sixteen Nigerians whose asylum petitions had been denied by the Swiss government. The unnamed man had reportedly been on a hunger strike in protest of his deportation.

Swiss police said that they had shackled the man because he had resisted deportation. The shackles were removed after he fell ill that Wednesday.

Swiss authorities said that they have launched an investigation into the death, and reported that independent observers will, henceforth, monitor deportation flights.  The measure to monitor flights is part of a  larger European Union effort to regulate deportations.

 BBC reported that a man named Emmanuel who was among the Nigerians to be deported said: “They treated us like animals . . . They shackled our feet, knees, hands, hips, arms and torso and made us wear a helmet like those worn by boxers. It was simply impossible to move.”

The deportee’s death is the third such death reported in Switzerland since 1999. In 2009, forty three special flights from Switzerland repatriated roughly 360 people, largely from the Balkans or Africa.

Swiss voters have supported measures in a recent referendum which would tighten the country’s already stringent immigration laws. The United Nations Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) called the vote “regrettable.” In particular, the UNCHCR pointed to the Swiss requirement that asylum seekers provide authorities with identity documents within forty eight hours or face deportation as too stringent, adding that many refugees were deprived of identification from the countries they fled from.

For more information, please see:

Swissinfo.ch – Observers to monitor deportation flights – 21 March 2010

NZ Herald – Hunger striker dies in Swiss shackles – 20 March 2010

BBC – Swiss investigate death of Nigerian asylum seeker – 19 March 2010

Swissinfo.ch – Nigerian dies shortly before deportation flight – 18 March 2010

Author: Impunity Watch Archive