LOS ANGELES: Even as it welcomed the new Immigration and Naturalization Service’s guidelines regarding the asylum process, Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) said Oct 1 that the United States govt still has a long way to go to remove the bias in its system of determining refugee status.
The new regulations provide for specially trained asylum officers to evaluate claims filed with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The asylum officers will have access to human rights reports from a documentation center containing information from several sources.
“If the new rules allow for objective analysis of the conditions that lead individuals to flee their homelands, then the U.S. govt will be closer to confirming to its obligations under international law,” said John G. Healey, Executive Director, Amnesty International USA.
Amnesty International is currently in the midst of a nine month campaign highlighting the inequities in the treatment of asylum) seekers that refugees from countries such as Guatemala, Haiti and El Salvador are systematically being denied asylum by the Department of State and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, despite evidence that their repatriation could put them at risk of becoming victims of gross human rights violations.
In a recent 30 page report, Reasonable Fear; Human Rights and U.S. Refugee Policy, ATUSA examined the broken promise of the U.S. Government’s 1980 Refugee Act, which after ten years still does not ensure the protection of individuals seeking asylum.
As an example of the bias in the asylum system, Amnesty International pointed to the case of Audilia Quijada, a Honduran human rights activist whose asylum claim was rejected by immigration authorities, based in part on an opinion letter from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs (BHRHA). Amnesty International believes that her life could be seriously endangered if she were returned to Honduras where she could face torture and arrest.
“Ms, Quijada’s case is not unusual; the INS often denies even the strongest claims based on BHRHA opinion letters. We can only hope that under the new guidelines cases like this will be heard more fairly,” said Nicak Rizza, Director of the AIUSA Refugee Program.
AIUSA stressed that the new regulations will not address all the problems of the asylum process. For the hundreds of asylum seekers detained in the remote rural areas of south Florida or near the USS border with Mexico, legal assistance will still be hard to obtain. They will still be a long way from local community support, and even if they have excellent claims, the INS still does not allow refugee organizations access to these detention centers, Furthermore, those apprehended by the Border Patrol and awaiting deportation only have access to the asylum process before an immigration judge.
Exume Vilvert, a former soldier who is wanted by the Haitian authorities for allowing the sole survivor of a mass political execution to escape, has been in detention for 16 months in Laredo, Texas, far from a strong Haitian support community that might assist him with his claim.
Vilvert was recently denied asylum by an immigration judge, who dismissed the inherent danger posed by sending Vilvert back to Haiti to face prosecution.
“It is ironic that the United States would deny asylum to an individual who risked his life to protect another.
This type of skewed logic is being used consistently to deny safe haven to those whose lives are in danger if they return home,” AIUSA said.
Amnesty International continues to gather information on similar cases and will monitor the INS and State Department performance under the new regulations.
“Amnesty International believes that to flee oppression is not crime, and to apply for asylum is a human right. The U.S. Govt must keep its commitment to protect the human rights of refugees, and must do what it can to end human rights abuses in countries whose citizens are forced to flee,” Healey said.
(The Refugee Report is available for $6.00 from Amnesty International USA, 3407 W. Sixth St., Ste. 704, Los Angeles, CA 90020).
Article extracted from this publication >> October 19, 1990
