According to the LCHR, “having had a scooter accident, he was hospitalized two months ago, suffered multiple fractures (arm, leg and pelvis) and underwent several operations, including the installation of an external fixator at the pelvis level. He is currently held in a very dirty, overcrowded cell, his bones would be getting infected, he cannot walk, and is losing completely mobility in his legs. For several days, he has not been eating, nor drinking, has been vomiting continuously and seems extremely dehydrated. He only seems to be receiving paracetamol for treatment purposes.”

The LCHR has called for the immediate transfer of Sany Kumar to the hospital. Otherwise, he risks at a minimum, permanently losing the use of his legs and, at worst, losing his life.

We urge the Lebanese authorities to make in the coming hours the decision to transfer Sany Kumar to a health care setting, and in case the medical director of the prison refuses, that he be immediately examined by an independent doctor. We also asked the Justice System to expedite its decision and to show clemency for humanitarian reasons, and the Embassy of India to take all necessary measures to repatriate him to his country.

For additional information:
Marie DAUNAY, President
Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH)
Bakhos blg. 1st floor, St. Joseph Hospital Street
Dora – Beirut, Lebanon
Tel : +961 1 24 00 23 / +961 3 887 108
www.cldh-lebanon.org

According to this article in The Enquirer:

Migrante-Middle East (ME) said the family of Joselito Zapanta had sought help from their Manila office after learning that Zapanta had experienced “heavy beating” at the Malaz central jail.

“Zapanta’s family requested for his protection. They said he could hardly eat because of the heavy blows he sustained,” John Leonard Monterona, Migrante-ME regional coordinator based in Riyadh, said in a statement.

Monterona said the family had no information on who had beaten Zapanta.

“It could have been a fellow prisoner,” he said, adding that their group had yet to independently verify the report.

“He (Zapanta) used to call me from his cell. I have been calling his mobile phone since yesterday (Saturday), but there was no answer. In one instance, someone answered. When I asked to speak with Joselito, the line was cut,” Monterona said.

Zapanta is in prison for killing his Sudanese landlord, who reportedly beat him brutally after he did not hand over his rent because his wages were late. According to a statement from Migrante, he fought back and accidentally killed the landlord. He has been in jail since June 2009

This sit-in, which CLDH urgently called for given the very serious deterioration of the situation at the retention center (which holds hundreds of migrants, men and women, including refugees recognized by UNHCR), was attended by human rights defenders, including various civil society organizations.

Participants were given the opportunity to write many messages of support to refugees and migrants detained arbitrarily.

In this short video of the sit-in, we can see Wadih Asmar from CLDH decrying the inhumane conditions of livelihood in the retention center. According to a CLDH press release, “the retention center of the General Security is a former underground parking, in which 13 cages have been installed to keep confined for months on end irregular migrants who never see daylight, suffer from inadequate ventilation, are fed daily with potatoes and mortadella, and are severely punished in case of protest.”

The call comes after numerous attempts to achieve justice for refugees and migrants, which have failed because of the reluctance of the General Security to release foreigners who have served their prison sentences.

According to the Lebanese Center for Human Rights (CLDH – Centre Libanais des Droits de l’Homme), on Wednesday the 17th of March 2010, in despair, two Iraqi refugees detained arbitrarily at the General Security retention center are alleged to have violently beaten their heads on the walls. Several others declared that they had stopped eating for two weeks to protest against their detention conditions and to demand their release. Others have joined this Saturday March 20th the hunger strike movement, which the authorities have made a point to deny. On several occasions since last week, some refugees have spent hours screaming in despair in the underground cells of the retention center.

“No one is hearing us… How long will we remain locked up? We are all going to kill ourselves, we cannot bear it any longer!”, they declared in a message addressed to CLDH. “Imagine yourself simply going to jail when your only crime is to have fled your country! Imagine yourself spending several months in an underground parking, in cages, without seeing any sunlight, without an activity and not knowing when you will get out! Here, days are a hundred times longer than outside …” they added.

For more info, please call Wadih Al Asmar: +961 70 950 780

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=110564545627537

CLDH’s Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=107869015821

Lebanon must immediately close a “disgraceful” retention center where refugees and migrants are held arbitrarily in appalling conditions, activists demanded Sunday.

Braving heavy rain, around 60 people demonstrated outside the General Security Retention Center, an underground facility under Beirut’s Adlieh Bridge. Protestors flanked by almost as many security officials held placards reading: “The Lebanese Guantanamo,” “Asylum is a right, NOT a crime,” and “General Security VS human security.”

Not considered an official prison, the facility, opened in 1996, has no hot water, natural light or fresh air, and in contravention to Lebanese law, male guards are tasked with supervising female detainees. Many of those who have been detained complain of physical violence from guards, poor nutrition and filthy living conditions.

Nadim Houry (video below), from Human Rights Watch, condemns the ongoing detention by the Lebanese General Security of three Iraqi refugees who were ordered to be set free by Lebanese courts.

iLoubnan.info video interview with Marie Daunay, from the Lebanese Center for Human Rights (in French) who called for the demonstration:

Currently, over 230 foreigners including 13 refugees who have completed their sentence are held in Lebanese prisons. Continuing to hold migrants after the completion of their prison terms is against Lebanese and international law. Currently, the Internal Security Forces that manage the prisons transfer foreign detainees to the Directorate General of General Security after the completion of their prison term, regardless of whether the courts ordered their deportation or not. Many are held for months by the Directorate before being released or deported.

We call on all our readers in Lebanon to join the demonstration held tomorrow, February 28 in front of the General Security Retention Center in Adlieh, Beirut at 12:00 PM to protest this hideous and illegal practice.

Below is the press release by the Lebanese Center for Human Rights

CALL FOR A GENERAL MOBILIZATION
To Close Down the General Security Retention Center
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 28 at 12PM

Under the Adlieh bridge, hundreds of persons are detained underground in inhumane conditions with no natural light or ventilation.

The General Security maintains these persons illegally, including refugees, migrant domestics and workers who have already served their sentence, for indeterminate periods of time without any external control.
This practice constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights and must end immediately!

The Lebanese Center for Human Rights calls on human rights defenders and all citizens to express their indignation this Sunday February 28 at 12PM in front of the General Security Retention Center at the Adlieh round-about to demand:
· The immediate release of all persons arbitrarily detained.
· The closing down of the retention center.
· The review of the General Security’s prerogatives

Break the silence on illegal practices of the General Security!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=328691816077&index=1

This is the video of the press conference (in Arabic) that I took, where some the questions, including mine, were not fully answered. I was also told that there were some factual errors including that she was taken by Caritas car to UNHCR and not by taxi as Caritas head has claimed.

—–

The Lebanese General Security Office (GSO), the official state body in charge of entry, stay and exit of foreigners, is coming under heavy fire following its decision to maintain the arbitrary detention of Iraqi refugee Yousra El-Amiri.

On 11 December 2009, a Lebanese judge in Zahle, Cynthia Kasarji, order the immediate release of Yousra who has been arbitrarily for over 6 months, following her illegal entry to Lebanon.

Yousra fled to Lebanon with her brother in May 2009, through Syria, following the murder of their brother and her husband by armed militias. The GSO detained them on basis of illegal entry, and a Lebanese judge ordered their imprisonment for one month – a sentenced which ended on 21 June, 2009. But the GSO did not release them ever since, seeking an impossible repatriation. Her brother also remains in prison till date.

While in prison, UNHCR gave them refugee status, as they would be killed if they return to Iraq. Lebanon is not a signatory of the 1951 Refugee convention, and UNHCR is operating in Beirut and giving refugee status to Iraqis based on an Memorandum of Understanding with the GSO.

The court decision was hailed by a leading human rights activists as one of the seven most important court decisions in 2009 as it dares challenge the established illegal practice of arbitrary detention of foreigners who have finished their sentence. On the other side, the General Director of the GSO, Wafi Gezini, stated to Al-Akhbar newspaper that the judge who gave her decision “did not know what she was doing” thus dealing an unprecedented blow to the Lebanese judiciary. Omar Nashbeh, leading Lebanese journalists and advisor to the minister of interior on human rights affairs, asked in Al-Akhbar “Is this how the judiciary is strengthened and immunized as stated in the Hariri government ministerial statement?”

Al-Akhbar added that Lebanese Minister of Interior, Ziad Baroud, had issued directives ordering the implementation of the court decision immediately. But the GSO has not abided by his directives, a case of a state employee refusing to abide by the minister’s orders.

In an amazing twist in this affair, the General Security, to ease the pressure on it, declared to Al-Akhbar (Saturday 17 January, 2010) that they have decided to transfer Yousra to Caritas Migrant’s shelter. The media and the lawyer were informed that Yousra was set free on Saturday, in what seems to be a maneuver to calm down public opinion.

Effectively, Caritas Migrant Center has accepted to keep Yousra detained against a judge decision to set her free.

According to NGO sources exclusive to Migrant-Rights.org, this is not the first time Caritas shelters are used by the GSO. In principle, they are destined to be used as shelters of trafficked women. But in a previous similar case, an Iraqi woman refugee – now resettled to Sweden – was also arbitrarily detained at Caritas Migrant shelter or safe house and only set free once UNHCR got her ticket to Sweden.

Today, Monday, January 18, 2010, Caritas Migrant chauffeur took Yousra to UNHCR office and is currently seeking to bring her back to the Caritas’ detention facility. Several rights groups including Frontiers Association are demonstrating to prevent handing over of Yousra to Caritas.

Also, Caritas are organizing today a gathering at the Martyrs square in Downtown Beirut in support of the Migrant Workers in Lebanon, and a candle vigil under the theme: “Shed light on Migrants’ Rights”. Several dozens of human rights activists have decided to attend the event with banners demanding
1. The release of Yousra El-Amiri
2. To stop the use of Caritas Migrant centers are arbitrary detention facilities for the GSO
3. To end the practice of arbitrary detention by the General Security

Wissam Salibi, for Migrant-Rights.org
Author of EthiopianSuicides.blogspot.com

Ethiopian Suicides comment: this is quite an interesting development. Will the minister be up to the challenge of reforming the system of entry, stay and exit of migrant domestic workers,which has proven terribly faulty?

Articles:

“العاملات الأجنبيات: وزارة الداخلية لحمايتهن والنيبال تمنع العمل في لبنان,” Al-Akhbar, December 2, 2009, http://www.al-akhbar.com/ar/node/167511/print

“Baroud discusses migrant rights with embassies,” The Daily Star, December 2, 2009, http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=109315

This was originally posted on Ethiopian Suicides, and posted here with permission