EU: Illegal extradition and "voluntary" return
01 June 2000
The UN police in Kosovo and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) have been accused in a report from the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) of organising the illegal extradition of a Kenyan citizen and former employee of the IOM.
The OSCE report says that Moses Omweno was extradited from his home in Nairobi on the orders of the Kenyan Attorney-General on 6 June at the request of the UN police and the IOM. The IOM said he had stolen DM190,000 (?60,000). Mr Omweno was simply detained and deported back to Pristina - he did not appear before a court and no international arrest warrant was issued.
The report says that Mr Omweno was questioned three times in Pristina by an RUC officer serving with the UN in Kosovo - he was not informed of his rights before the interviews. Prior to his deportation the RUC officer in charge of the case wrote to his commanding officer that: "There will not be a problem with the appeal re extradition."
The OSCE report says that the UN police did not contact lawyers, the office of the head of the UN mission in Kosovo, or the UN judicial affairs department before making their request for extradition.
The head of the IOM mission in Kosovo denied any wrongdoing and said the cost of the extradition was paid at the request of the UN police. "It is a joke. We did not do any police work. We just provided what the authorities needed", said Pasquale Lupoli, IOM mission head.
But Mr Omweno said the IOM went to great lengths to make sure he was deported from Kenya: "What they actually did was extradite me by themselves.. without any proper legal procedures", he said.
Mr Omweno was only released on 21 July after over six weeks in detention after a court hearing in Kosovo. The OSCE report says that Mr Omweno must be compensated for his unlawful detention in Kosovo and the UN is launching an inquiry.
What is IOM?
The IOM was created in 1951 by Belgium and the United States as the Provisional Intergovernmental Committee for the Movement of Migrants from Europe (PICMME) and then the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration (ICEM). In 1980 it was renamed the Intergovernmental Committee for Migration (ICM) and in 1989 was given its present title. Its HQ is in Geneva.
The IOM is an intergovernmental organisation with the objective of providing, under the title of "Assisted Returns Service":
"a comprehensive migration management system for the benefit of all parties"
and works with, "migrants and governments". The IOM:
"assists rejected asylum seekers, trafficked migrants, stranded students, labour migrants and qualified nationals to return home on a voluntary basis. IOM also works with other organisations helping repatriate refugees."
Its major programme is "Technical cooperation on migration" (TCM) which covers all third world countries. A report in October 1999 described one of the priorities for TCM as:
"Irregular migration: This can seriously jeopardise orderly migration and its benefits to migrants and host communities, can interrupt development and create social and sometimes security strains on societies. IOM will increase its training and advisory services to ensure effective border management in all regions and provide mechanisms for governments and other partners to find cooperative and multilateral solutions."
The IOM handles: "voluntary return migration, including voluntary repatriation". It thus makes all the arrangements for the return to the country of origin or a transit country of "irregular migrants" and "unsuccessful asylum-seekers". Its travel arrangements are subject to a test of "voluntariness", that is, where:
"the migrant's free will is expressed at least through the absence of refusal to return, e.g. by not resisting to board transportation or not otherwise manifesting disagreement."
If physical force has to be used for "forcibly returned persons" transport arrangements "are the respon