Syrians lose court case against their expulsion

February 02, 2016 9:26 AM
PHILIPSBURG--The three Syrian nationals who were held at Princess Juliana International Airport SXM on November 14, 2015, for presenting false passports and were sentenced by the Court of First Instance to suspended prison terms in December, on Monday lost their appeal against the government’s decision for their expulsion.
 
Issa Rasste (26), Shanto Bahi (34) and Salaiman Hasan (22) were found guilty of using false Greek passports on their arrival in St. Maarten. For this crime they all were sentenced to three months suspended, with three years’ probation, on December 16, 2015.
 
As a consequence, they were handed over to the authorities at the Immigration and Border Protection Service IGD. They were to be sent back to Haiti, the country from which they flew into St. Maarten.
 
However, attorneys Safira Ibrahim and Hedy Kocks filed an administrative LAR procedure against the Minister of Justice to prevent their clients’ expulsion. Based on the appeal, the Court called a “freeze” on the three Syrians’ expulsion and ordered their release pending the outcome of the legal procedure.
 
The Syrians fled from Syria to Turkey and had wanted to travel to Europe to be united with family members. Their lawyers claimed the three could not be extradited to Syria or sent back to Haiti. They were at risk to be sent back to Syria or to be erroneously associated with Islamic State (IS), it was claimed.
 
Non-refoulement
The Court was presented with a written statement by Senior Regional Protection Officer with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Simone Schwartz-Delgado to the IGD Director of December 18, 2015.
In her letter, Schwartz stated that UNHCR had received confirmation that the three Syrians were recognised as refugees by the Government of Paraguay.
The UNHCR representative reminded the Government of St. Maarten of its responsibility under customary law to prevent the so-called refoulement of these refugees to Syria, where they would be at risk of persecution.
 
Non-refoulement is a principle of international law which forbids the rendering of a true victim of persecution to his or her persecutor.
 
“It is relevant to note that Haiti is a country that lacks any asylum system or refugee law. There are thus insufficient procedural guarantees to prevent these refugees’ chain refoulement from Haiti to Syria,” Schwartz stated.
 
According to attorney-at-law Amador Muller, who represented the Minister of Justice in this procedure, St. Maarten does not have a refugee law or procedure. He also stated that the Syrians’ fears were unsubstantiated.
 
Other than the bad economic situation in Haiti there were no other risks attached to their expulsion to Haiti and, according to their own information, they would have been acknowledged as refugees in Paraguay, Muller said.
 
The Court established that the Minister of Justice holds the authority, based on the National Ordinance Admission and Expulsion LTU, to expel persons who are not or no longer entitled to stay in St. Maarten.
 
The Judge acknowledged that refugees are by law protected against return to a country where a person has reason to fear persecution, but St. Maarten, contrary to the Netherlands, Paraguay and Haiti, is not signatory to the Refugee Convention and cannot grant asylum.
 
However, St. Maarten is bound by the European Human Rights Treaty, which forbids torture. But the three Syrians had failed to provide detailed and verifiable statements about their personal situation, the Court said in its judgement.
 
First, the men had failed to provide sufficient proof they were in fact Syrians. They also did not give solid information about the reasons for their flight, other than “an implicit reference to the general situation in Syria,” the Court stated.
 
The men’s false Greek passports were stamped by border control officials in Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti and St. Maarten. The Court stated that the Syrians’ travel history was “unclear” and “full of gaps.” More than summary information also was not provided during the hearing, it was added.
 
According to the men, they used their Syrian passports to travel to Brazil. There, they ended up in the hands of a human smuggler. This person was arrested and the three Syrians lost their passports in the arrest.
 
They then used false Israeli passports to travel to Paraguay where, on the Prosecutor’s advice, they applied for asylum to avoid prosecution for possession of false travel documents. However, no decision was made on the asylum request. Instead, a Judge had informed them they should leave, the men said.
 
Provided with false Greek passports they travelled to St. Maarten via the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It was their intention to fly into Europe via St. Maarten.
 
Based on their own accounts the Court arrived at the conclusion that expulsion would not bring the Syrians into any danger, no matter to which country they were to be sent.
 
The Daily Herald

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