arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

Amnesty International's findings confirm many of the organization's earlier concerns
and suggest that a significant number of detainees continue to be deprived of certain basic rights
guaranteed under international law. These include the right to humane treatment, as well as
rights which are essential to protection from arbitrary detention, such as the right of anyone
deprived of their liberty to be informed of the reasons for the detention; to be able to challenge
the lawfulness of the detention; to have prompt access to and assistance from a lawyer; and to
the presumption of innocence.(p 3)

Concern has also been expressed that the authorities may be applying immigration laws in some
cases selectively on racial or religious grounds. While many thousands of people who overstay
their visas or commit similar violations are not detained for prolonged periods, those picked up
in the 9.11 sweeps are almost exclusively males from Muslim or Middle Eastern countries.(p 3)

Protection from racial discrimination is a fundamental right under both US and
international law. The International Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Racial
Discrimination (CERD), to which the USA is a state party, defines racial discrimination as
conduct that has the "purpose or effect" of restricting rights on the basis of race.(p 3)

Amnesty International has heard reports from family members that for weeks they have been
unable to establish if and where their loved ones were being held.7 Lawyers have also haddifficulty trying to establish where their clients are held or when they have a hearing before the
immigration court. One lawyer recounted how he would call with a detainee's name and date of
birth and was told that they were "not in the system" even though they were in detention.(p 7)

Amnesty International has examined the documents released by the government under
the FOIA in January 2002 (see 3.4 above) which includes information on 718 INS cases listing
date of arrest and the date on which charges were brought. This reveals that 401 individuals
were charged within 48 hours of arrest and 317 were charged after 48 hours. In 36 out of the
718 cases, the individuals were charged 28 days or more after their arrest. Thirteen people
were held for more than 40 days and nine for more than 50 days.(p 13)

Amnesty International is further concerned by the manner in which some detainees
have been deported. In two cases, two detainees were allegedly deported without their families
being informed by the authorities. In two cases detainees were reportedly put on planes without
any of their possessions.
The following are some reported case examples.
· A Palestinian-Jordanian was deported to Jordan after being held for two months in
solitary confinement in a Texas jail. He had reportedly agreed to Voluntary Departure
as he was afraid he would be held indefinitely in the USA and would be unable to
support his wife and his children who were born in the USA. He was reportedly
accompanied to Jordan by two INS officials and was taken into custody by the
Jordanian authorities on arrival. His wife, who had gone on to Jordan before him,
waited in vain for him at the airport. Amnesty International subsequently learned that he
was detained for 12 days before being released.44
· An Egyptian national, detained for overstaying his visa, was sent back to Egypt under
guard. He was reportedly handed over to the Egyptian authorities and held for seven
days before being cleared of any offence and allowed to go free.
· A Pakistani, detained for overstaying his visa, was granted Voluntary Departure from
the USA. He was reportedly detained on arrival in Karachi and held for two days. He
had no chance to contact his family prior to his departure and only managed to let them
know he was on a plane to Pakistan by asking another passenger to phone his relatives
in Pakistan from London.
· A Pakistani man who had spent 11 years in the USA and had claimed asylum was
deported in January 2002, without the authorities notifying his family in the USA. Hiswife learned of his deportation only after receiving a phone-call from him from Istanbul
airport en route to Pakistan.
· A young Iraqi arrived in the USA in August 2001. He requested asylum and was
released on bond after the INS determined he had a "credible fear" claim. He was
picked up by the INS on 21 September 2001 and in early November 2001 his claim for
asylum was turned down by a judge. He remained in detention until February 2002
when he was released on bail pending an appeal.
· A Palestinian with a Jordanian passport claimed asylum and was free on bond until 26
September when he was taken into detention and his bond cancelled. Immigration
officials requested that bond be revoked, pending an "FBI investigation". His attorney
had no further information as to why they were holding him.
· A detainee was deported to Nepal in January 2002. He was put on a plane in the middle
of the night in an orange prison jump suit with none of his clothes or other belongings
including his identity card and bank card -- despite the prison (Metropolitan Detention
Center, New York) having been asked to have his belongings returned to him before
departure.(p 31)

Amnesty International has received reports that post 9.11 detainees are routinely shackled with
belly chains and leg shackles, with no regard as to whether they have a record of violent
behaviour or flight risk.(p 31)

Although they are not criminal detainees,
some are held in high security units designed to house prisoners considered to be dangerous or
disruptive to the orderly operation of the facility.
· Rabid Haddad, a Lebanese man, charged with overstaying his tourist visa, has been held
in solitary confinement since 14 December in the Metropolitan Correctional Center,
Chicago. According to his letters from prison, his cell windows are whited out so he
has no view; he is put in handcuffs while being escorted to secure showers some 10
paces from his cell; and he is allowed only one 15-minute call to his family every 30
days.
· A Palestinian man arrested on 22 September 2001 for a visa violation was detained in
Denton County Jail, Texas, in solitary confinement with only one hour of exercise a
week in an enclosed yard. He was shackled during non-contact visits with his wife,
denied personal property and, unlike other inmates, denied access to TV. After more
than two months in such conditions, he accepted voluntary departure from the USA to
Jordan, where he was detained on arrival and held for two weeks by the Jordanian
authorities.
· Dr Mazen Al-Najjar, a Muslim cleric and academic, was arrested in November 2001
after being issued with a final order of deportation. Despite having no violent or
criminal record, he is held in solitary confinement in a high security federal prison in Florida, locked in a cell 23 hours a day. He was denied any visits at all with his family
for the first 30 days of his confinement. As a stateless Palestinian with no country to
return to, he could remain indefinitely in such conditions.(p 31)

A Nepalese Buddist was held for about 60 days in total solitary confinement in MDC
SHU. He could not communicate with anyone because he did not speak any language
others could understand. The FBI reportedly "cleared" him a month after his arrest and
he agreed to Voluntary Departure from the USA. He remained in custody, still confined
to the SHU. The prison said they could not move him to the "general population"
section (as would normally have been the case while awaiting Voluntary Departure)
because he was crying so much and would disrupt the other prisoners.(p 35)

An Egyptian national detained for an alleged immigration violation has been in the
MDC SHU for more than five months. The window to his cell has reportedly been
blacked out so he cannot see outside as punishment for failing to stand up when a guard
came into his cell during prayer. As further punishment, his wife was not allowed to
visit him for 60 days. He does not know why he is being held in solitary confinement
and is reported to be very depressed and to have considered suicide.(p 36)

6.5 Allegations of verbal and physical abuse
Amnesty International has received allegations that some post 9.11 detainees were subjected to
physical and/or verbal abuse during their initial period in police custody or when taken to jails.
Two former detainees, both Egyptians interviewed separately by AI in January 2002, said that
FBI agents yelled and swore at them repeatedly during initial questioning at the federal lockup
in Varick Street in October 2001. One said he was not given any food for 11 hours and slept in a
room with 12 or 13 other detainees with only six mattresses. A Pakistani man detained in
October 2001 was reportedly interrogated by the INS in Miami while handcuffed to a chair from
8 am to 3pm, and denied access to a lawyer - when his lawyer visited him the next day he was in
shock and crying. Complaints of abuse during the initial detention period have also been
reported in the media and during court proceedings.51(p 37)

Amnesty International also heard repeated complaints that dogs were at one time used
to intimidate and threaten detainees at Passaic jail. The jail has a canine (K-9) unit with six dog
pens, which AI observed during its tour of the jail in February. The jail authorities stressed that
the dogs were used only for "narcotics patrol" and were not used to intimidate inmates.
However, the case cited above suggests that dogs had been brought into the dormitories of INS
detainees (who were not held for drugs or any criminal offences); one detainee told AI that dogs
had been deliberately brought up close to detainees who were nervous of them. It appears,
however, that this practice may have ended at the time of AI's visit. Several sources said that
treatment of the detainees generally had improved since the arrival of a new sheriff in January
2002 and that dogs were no longer brought into the inmate living areas.(p 38)