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Switzerland: Police

01 January 1991

Switzerland: Police
artdoc November=1995

Deportation attempt led to beating

A Tamil asylum-seeker says that six Zurich police officers beat
him until he lost consciousness in a deportation attempt. After
he fainted, he was taken handcuffed to the airport where he was
placed almost naked in a cell when he refused to sign a document
authorising his deportation (Courrier 30.1.95).

Asylum-seekers claim police brutality after identity check

Two asylum-seekers have been forced to leave Switzerland, even
as their complaint of police harassment was being investigated.
Emmanuel John and George James say they were assaulted and
racially abused following an identity check outside Sissach
railway station in the canton of Basel-Land on 3 July. According
to Amnesty International, George James suffered a dog-bite to his
thigh and Emmanuel John was bitten so severely on his buttocks
and stomach that he lost consciousness.
Following the allegations, a judicial investigation was set
up into the men's complaint. But during the three-month delay
in setting up the inquiry, the two men's asylum applications were
rejected as the Swiss authorities disputed their claims of
Sudanese nationality. Shortly after they were questioned, they
were obliged to leave the country (AI, op cit).

IRR European Race Audit, no 13, April 1995. Contact: Liz Fekete,
Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London WC1X 9HS.
Tel: 0171 837 0041