North America & Oceania

Australia Deports Refugees Back to Afghanistan and Taliban Persecution

By Max Bartels 

Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania 

 

Canberra, Australia

Australian immigration policy has again, come under scrutiny as they prepare to deport a young Afghan man from Australia back to Afghanistan. The news is concerning to many, in light of the results of past deportations of Afghani refugees back to Afghanistan. In September of 2011 Zainullah Naseri was deported from Australia back to Afghanistan when his refugee application was rejected by Immigration Department. Upon returning to Afghanistan Naseri was reportedly abducted and tortured by the Taliban for two days. He somehow escaped from the Taliban using a rock to break his chains, upon his escape he was picked up by Afghan police, who interrogated him and threatened him by firing shots at his feet. Naseri claims that he was targeted because of his connection to Australia,  he now lives in hiding, in fear of contact with both the Taliban and Afghan Police.

IW #23 Afghan Refugees
Naseri photographed while in Taliban Custody (Photo Curtesy of The Guardian)

Scott Morrison, the Australian Immigration Minister, has ordered an investigation into the kidnapping of Naseri and a broader inquiry into the safety of Afghani- Australian Refugees returning to Afghanistan. Morrison has stated that he has been advised that there are reports suggesting that the kidnapping of Naseri was purely opportunistic and therefore, not related to a a fear of prosecution, which would trigger Australia’s protection obligation. In light of these findings Australia will continue the deportations until the protection obligation is triggered. There is growing concern in Australia of the consequences of deporting these refugees back to Afghanistan and the safety concerns that go along with it. A motion in the Senate proposes calling an immediate moratorium on the deportations.

Now Australia has deported its second Afghani refugee from Australia back to Afghanistan, Australia has not disclosed the name of the individual, he is simply referred to as R. R is from the same province of Afghanistan as Naseri and there is a concern that he will also be at risk of kidnap or even death from the Taliban. Adding to the concerns of R is the deportation charge given to him by the government of Australia. The government is charging him a $25,000 bill or his deportation, $1,000 for his flight and $24,000 for the estimated seven Australian officials who will accompany him on his flight. There are further reports that seven more Afghani-Australian refugees are in custody in Australia and set to be deported back to Afghanistan as well.

For more information, please see:

ABC News — Calls for Moratorium on Deportation on Asylum Seekers to Afghanistan after Abduction, Torture Claims — 27 October 2014

The Guardian — Afghan Hazara Asylum Seekers to be Forcibly Deported to Afghanistan — 7 October 2014

The Sydney Morning Herald — Government to Investigate Torture Claims of Deported Asylum Seeker Zainullah Naseri — 27 October 2014 

The Guardian — Australia Forcibly Returns Second Afghan Hazara, Despite Fears Over Safety — 28 October 2014

 

 

Blackwater Employees Convicted of 2007 Nisour Square Massacre

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch, North America

 WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America – On September 16, 2007, three dozen unarmed civilians were gunned down on the streets of Baghdad by Blackwater Worldwide Security firm, a now notorious private contractor, hired to guard U.S. diplomats. The event now known as the Nisour Square massacre became one of the most controversial moments in a very controversial war. The company was subsequently ejected from Iraq and had to pay compensation to the 17 victim’s families who were killed and 20 who were wounded by machine guns and grenades.

An Iraqui police officer investigates the aftermath of a car bomb in Nisour Square in 2007 (Photo courtesy of the Guardian).

While America’s record for prosecuting war crimes is nominal, on Wednesday, 22 October, four Blackwater employees were successfully convicted of 32 counts of manslaughter, murder, attempted manslaughter and weapons charges. A jury consisting of four men and eight women deliberated for 28 days before convicting Nicholas A. Slatten, Paul a. Slough, Evan S. Liberty and Dustin L. Heard. Three of the men face a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years imprisonment, whereas Slatten faces a mandatory life sentence. Reports indicate that the defendants displayed little emotion while sitting in court to hear the verdicts.

The founder and former CEO of Blackwater, Erik Prince, stated that the convictions of his former employees for their role in the 2007 shootings was unexpected, and raised questions as to whether they received a fair trial. Prince states, “Well, there was certainly a lot of politics surrounding this and the fact that the federal government spent tens of millions of dollars on this, now trying it seven years after the event, and 7,000 miles from where it happened.” Defense attorneys stated that they plan to appeal the convictions, maintaining that their clients acted reasonably at a time when they were providing necessary security for U.S. diplomats and Baghdad was plagued by acts of terrorism. The prosecutions strategy prevailed over the defendant’s claims of self-defense, stating that the men showed “a grave indifference” to the carnage of their actions.

It is doubtful that the United States can rehabilitate its reputation for overseas accountability, especially when allegations of CIA torture have surfaced. However, the convictions of the Blackwater employees were a step in the right direction, appropriately addressing what some are calling the worst atrocities of the war and comparing it to the My Lai massacre in Vietnam.

 

For more information, please see the following:

 CNN – 4 Ex-Blackwater Guards Guilty in Nusoor Square Shooting – 23 Oct. 2014.

HUFFINGTON POST – Jury Issues Guilty Verdicts For Blackwater Guards – 22 Oct. 2014.

THE GUARDIAN – Blackwater Verdicts Seen as Watershed For Accountability in War Zones – 22 Oct. 2014

THE WASHINGTON POST – Erik Prince on Blackwater Verdicts: ‘A lot of Politics Surrounding This’- 23 Oct. 2014.

Does Quarantine of Health Workers Returning From West Africa Violate Human Rights?

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

 WASHINGTON, D.C., United States of America – Medical workers returning from treating patients in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea are being quarantined by several U.S. states even if they show no sign of Ebola symptoms. The U.S. army has implemented a similar policy, isolating nearly a dozen soldiers at part of a U.S. base in Vicenza, Italy.

Nurse Kaci Hickox returned from treating Ebola patients in West Africa and was immediately quarantined in the state of New Jersey (Photo Courtesy of Reuters).

The federal government has said that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention will release guidelines for executing protocols for healthcare workers returning to the U.S. from treating patients in West Africa. However, state officials, whom are unfamiliar with such a health threat, have called federal restrictions placed on people traveling from parts of West Africa insufficient, and have thus resorted to imposing tougher measures like automatic quarantines on medical workers.

New York, Illinois, Florida, and New Jersey instituted mandatory quarantines for anyone exposed to people infected with Ebola. U.N. Secretary-General, Bank Ki-moon, has publicly criticized the quarantines, saying through his spokesman that they create difficulties for medical workers risking their lives, and these workers “should not be subjected to restrictions that are not based on science.”

Those who have been subjected to the mandatory quarantine procedure have called the constitutionality of the state implemented quarantines to attention. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has defended his state’s policy of automatic quarantine. However, nurse, Kaci Hickox, who was placed into quarantine on Friday claimed that she felt that her “basic human rights are being violated,” by being kept in isolation at University Hospital in Newark, despite not showing any symptoms of the Ebola virus. She is the first person quarantined under the New Jersey policy.

The lawyer for the nurse said that he is planned to file a federal suit if his client was not released. Hickox stated that she was being held in a tent structure, “with a port-a-potty like structure and no shower and no connection to the outside world….” She has also claimed that she had not been allowed to see her lawyer or anyone else.

The New Jersey Governor has since stated that he will allow Hickox to finish the 21-day quarantine at home. He rationalized this statement by stating, “she hadn’t had any symptoms for 24 hours and she tested negative for Ebola so there’s no reason to keep her.”

 

For more information, please see the following:

ABC NEWS – Nurse in Ebola Quarantine to Sue For Freedom; Feds Push Back on State Rules – 26 Oct 2014.

CNN – Nurse Describes Ebola Quarantine Ordeal: ‘ I Was In Shock. Now I’m Angry’ – 27 Oct. 2014

REUTERS – U.S. CDC Says Returning Ebola Medical Workers Should Not Be Quarantined – 27 Oct. 2014.

USA TODAY – Nurse Quarantines in N.J. To Be Released – 27 Oct. 2014.

 

Cold Lake Mosque Targeted by Vandalism

By Lyndsey Kelly
Impunity Watch Reporter, North America

 
OTTAWA, Canada – A mosque in northeastern Alberta was recently vandalized on Thursday when a brick was thrown though its windows and a message which read “go home” was spray painted in red on the exterior of the building. The community of Cold Lake responded by rallying both non-Muslim and Muslim neighbors to aid in the clean up of the damage.

(above) The Cold Lake Mosque is shown with hateful messages left by an unknown vandal. (below) The Mosque is shown after citizens came together to help repair the damage. (Photo Courtesy of The Edmonton Sun).

A group of citizens, including business leaders and other influential members of the community patched up the broken windows with temporary cardboard signs that read, “love your neighbor,” and “you are home.” The community showed members of the mosque support on Friday assuring them they’re welcome in the community. Members of the mosque also gathered and placed posters, flowers, and gifts from various community members and displayed them by the windows that were smashed.

A member of the mosque’s board, Mahmoud El-Kadri, originally discovered the vandalism at about 6 a.m. on Friday when he arrived at the mosque for Morning Prayer. He responded to the vandalism by stating, “the writing hurts. This is my home, this is our home. This is the only home we have. Cold Lake is our home. Canada is our home.”

The vandalism occurred just a week after six CF-18 Hornet fighter jets took off from 4 Wing Cold Lake, the country’s busiest fighter aircraft base. The jets were targeting Iraq, as part of an air combat mission, dubbed Operation IMPACT. This is part of coalition air strikes, which are targeting the Muslim extremist group, The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) also known as ISIS. The missions goal is to degrade ISIL’s ability to carry out any military operations against the citizens of the Republic of Iraq.

The vandalism also comes just days after radicalized Muslim men killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo in Ottawa on Wednesday and Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent in Quebec just days earlier.

 

For more information, please see the following:

CBC NEWS –Town rallies around vandalized Cold Lake Mosque – 24 Oct. 2014.

THE EDMONTON SUN – Cold Lake Mosque Vandalized With Words ‘ Go Home’-24 Oct. 2014.

HUFFINGTON POST –Cold Lake Mosque Vandalized with Words ‘Go Home’ – 24 Oct. 2014.

THE TORONTO STAR – Mosque Vandalized in Cold Lake, Alberta – 24 Oct. 2014.

 

Study: Most Victims of Human Trafficking Enter the United States Legally

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch, Managing Editor

WASHINGTON DC, the United States of America – According to a new study, funded by the United States Department of Justice, published by Northeastern University and the Urban institute most victims of human trafficking arriving in the United States enter the country legally. The study found that most victims of human trafficking in the United States arrived in the country with a legal work visa and later became indentured servants after their immigration papers were taken away by traffickers and recruiters. The study focused on 122 foreign men and women who sought to receive services from a coalition of organizations that assist the victims of trafficking. The researchers also interviewed service providers and law enforcement officials as well as the victims of trafficking themselves.

According to a new study that examines labor trafficking in the United States, human trafficking has been seen in agriculture, construction, hotels, restaurant and domestic services industries. (Photo courtesy of CNN Money)

According to the Report the average age of victims in the study was 33 at the time they began receiving services. Most had children. Almost a third of the victims had attained higher education, and 71% held some type of temporary work visa when they entered the United States. The study found traffickers often used the visa status as a weapon to exploit workers by withholding their documentation in an attempt to keep the victims from leaving and threatening to have them deported if they refuse to continue serving the traffickers.

The report found that most of the victims involved in the study were recruited in their home country, and were often deceived about the nature and compensation of the work they would be doing in the United States. Typically, the victims of human trafficking came from countries in Central America or Southeast Asia.

While human trafficking is not limited to any area of the globe, the majority of the workers in the Northeastern University Study were trafficked from their homelands in Asia and Latin America. (Photo courtesy of The Boston Globe)

According to the report, foreign workers are often lured by traffickers offering false promises of a good life with good jobs in the United States. However the victims of traffickers soon find themselves living as slaves in plain sight. About half of these workers pay “recruitment” fees to their traffickers, these fees are often thousands of dollars that can leave them stuck in debt to traffickers for years.

The victims of human trafficking are living and working under slave-like conditions across America in farming communities, on construction sites, in restaurants and even inside homes in quiet suburban neighborhood. Since human trafficking was criminalized in 2000 the federal Justice Department has convicted labor traffickers in New York, Georgia and Washington State among other prosecutions.

According to The International Labour Organization, a United Nation’s agency, an estimated 21 million people worldwide are the victims of forced labor. However, there is no official estimate of how prevalent the problem is in the United States.

For more information please see:

The Boston Globe – Most Victims of Human Trafficking Enter The US Legally, Study Says – 21 October 2014

CNN Money – Slave Labor in America Today – 21 October 2014

Hartford Business – Slave Labor in America Today – 21 October 2014

Reuters – Study Shows U.S. Forced-Labor Victims Unclear Where to Seek Help – 21 October 2014