28 March 2012
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Spain
Protocol for the deportation of migrants to allow straightjackets
and helmets
On 3 September 2007, El País newspaper reported that the
interior ministry has prepared a draft protocol of security norms
regulating police officers' conduct in the course of repatriations,
that envisages that undocumented migrants may be forced to wear
straightjackets and a helmet during deportation flights, for
their own security and to stop migrants from causing themselves
self-harm. The protocol was deemed necessary to implement Council
of Europe (CoE) directives, and as a result of the increasing
numbers of deportations, 8,530 in 2007 in both chartered and
commercial flights, particularly after the death of Osamuyia
Aikpitanhi of a cardio-respiratory failure resulting from asphyxia
as he was gagged with tape and had his feet and hands tied, on
an Iberia flight from Madrid to Lagos (Nigeria) on 9 June 2007
(see Statewatch vol. 17 no. 2). Aikpitanhi's relatives alleged
that his death had resulted from him being been ill-treated by
officers escorting him. Deportees will have to embark with a
medical report detailing "any medical circumstance that
may affect the expulsion" and the police officer in charge
may suspend the expulsion if it does guarantee a "safe and
dignified transfer". They will be handcuffed with laces
(not rigid, unlike handcuffs), have their seatbelts fastened
throughout the flight, except for when they go to the bathroom,
in which case they will be escorted, and will be informed before
the flight that resistance will not lead to the flight being
cancelled. If they resist violently, "they may be immobilised
by means that do not endanger their physical integrity or compromise
their vital functions", using "proportional" force
and respecting their "honour and dignity".
The use of "helmets for self-protection" to stop them
from causing themselves harm (Aikpitanhi is alleged to have banged
his head against the aeroplane) and of "belts and authorised
immobilisation clothing" (acting somewhat like straightjackets
securing the arms to the body) is envisaged, although they are
reported not to currently be part of the police force's regulatory
equipment. The officer in charge will "direct operations
to re-establish order", in communication with the captain,
if there is unrest by passengers in the aircraft. The draft protocol
provides for one unarmed officer to be sat on each side of the
deportee, that they may not be photographed, and that they may
not disembark in the countries they travel to, "particularly
Nigeria", while local authorities will also be discouraged
from boarding the aircraft. Repatriated migrants will disembark
one by one, without handcuffs or other means of coercion, as
a cosmetic measure not to make them look like prisoners, an image
that could be used by opposition parties in countries of origin.
Criticism of these measures was voiced by Izquierda Unida
(United Left), whose general co-ordinator Gaspar Llamazares accused
the government of being willing to incur in "inhuman and
degrading" treatment to deport migrants, allowing the policy
of expulsions to prevail over "rights", the Andalusian
ombudsman, who said that repatriations must be conducted while
"respecting human rights" and without "misusing"
means such as straightjackets, and Amnesty International, which
criticised the absence of CoE recommendations such as "the
absolute prohibition of adhesive tape and the use of helmets
and straightjackets, which may cause postural asphyxia".
This last claim is borne out by a precedent involving the death
by asphyxia on 30 May 1999 of Aamir Mohamed Ageeb, a Sudanese
asylum seeker who was embarked on an aeroplane flying from Germany
to Cairo wearing a helmet, one of a number of people deported
from EU countries to have died of asphyxia.
Thus, while European tourists are warned of the dangers of "economy
class syndrome", EU governments continue to regulate the
practices resulting from their restrictive immigration policies,
decreeing that returning undocumented migrants to their countries
in flights lasting several hours with their hands tied, belts
buckled, and even wearing helmets or straightjackets, for their
own well-being, is respectful of their dignity and safety. Concerns
over the cosmetic impact of these practices in countries of origin
are an example of how authorities themselves perceive the need
to conceal the graphic image of how policies portrayed as neutral
and uncontroversial are translated into practice.
El País, 3-4.9.2007.
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