DETENTION CAN OFTEN BE AVOIDED

Imprisonment frequently causes illness

Published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, 1st July 2010, by Roland Preuß

Unofficial translation from the German into English by JRS Europe

Munich - Foreigners without a residence permit are unnecessarily detained for deportation in many cases. This is the result of a study made by the Jesuit Refugee Service, an international refugee agency. The study is to be released this Thursday.

The report says alternatives to detention, such as release on bail or duty of registration at the police, are used too rarely. "But with them, many serious consequences of detention could be avoided", says JRS legal expert and co-author of the study, Heiko Habbe.

For the study, the organisation, which is providing services to refugees in many countries, interviewed 685 asylum applicants [and illegal migrants] in 21 EU member states. In Germany, JRS staff spoke to 60 detainees in the Munich-Stadelheim prison and in the Berlin-Köpenick detention centre. The study is not representative on federal level, but gives insights into the consequences of detention, an area where little research has been done up to now.

The authors particularly emphasize the serious health consequences of detention for deportation. They are detained in many regional states (Bundesländer) in normal prisons, sometimes together with criminal offenders, although they only violated visa- or immigration regulations. About one fourth of the detainees who were questioned did not know the reason for their detention; 60 percent would like to know more about the reasons for detention.

The majority of the detainees report suffering from health problems such as troubled sleep, depression or loss of appetite since being detained.

In addition, people detained for deportation, unlike criminal offenders, do not know how long they have to stay in prison, since this depends on bureaucratic procedures and deportation transports. "Many detainees also do not receive the legal assistance they require", says Habbe. Although there is the legal possibility to receive free legal assistance, this is in practice only available if they can show there is a probability of a successfull outcome. This needs to be proved in advance by the lawyer at his own financial risk.

At the moment, the fedeal government, according to the Ministery of the Interior, is amending asylum and deportation regulations. Until the end of the year, an EU directive has to be transposed that guarantees European minimum standards on returning illegal migrants. From the point of view of immigration lawyers, this will not change much in practice, since the new regulations are largely covered by German law already in place. However, the directive demands to seperate detainees for deportation from criminal offenders - a measure that is of high importance for JRS, but is not enough. "The length of detention should be reduced significantly from the 18 months maximum today to 3 months. Minors, pregnant women and sick people shuld be excluded", Habbe says. In the last years about 7000 people have been in detention for deportation per year; in 2008, almost 8400 foreigners have been deported.