Stateless limbo
Susan Akram* shows how post 11 September deportations from the United States particularly affect Palestinians
As part of the US administration's post 11 September 2001 "war on terror", the Department of Justice and its various agencies instituted a series of measures targeting the Arab and Muslim communities in the US. Among these measures were FBI-conducted "voluntary interviews" focussing only on Arab and Muslim non-citizens; the Special Registration programme (NSEERS) which also targeted only individuals from Muslim and Arab nations; extraordinary (and, in many cases, unconstitutional) procedures for lengthy detention and abusive treatment of Arab and Muslim detainees; and stepped-up deportations of nationals of Arab and Muslim countries.
Many of those who complied with the government's special registration programme have already been deported; many more face deportation in the months ahead. The US government has indicated that more than 13,000 of the 83,000 individuals who complied with special registration have or will be deported. The deportations mean particular hardship for stateless Palestinians.
The vast majority of Palestinians in the world are stateless: that is, there is no state that recognises them as their nationals. Palestinians seeking immigrant, non-immigrant or refugee status in western countries frequently come from the West Bank and Gaza, or from other Arab states, on various types of identity or travel documents -- but rarely with citizenship or permanent resident status in those states. Hence, there is no state obligated to accept them if they are deported from a third country. Moreover, due to historical and legal complexities in their situation, Palestinians are also not properly defined as "refugees", with the result that they are denied minimum refugee rights. Their precarious legal status renders them particularly vulnerable at all stages of the migration or refugee process, making most of them ineligible for an accurate assessment of their refugee or asylum claims, and facing an uncertain future if ordered deported.
The US, which is not a signatory to the major instruments guaranteeing protections to stateless persons (the 1954 Convention on the Status of Stateless Persons and the 1961 Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness), does not comply with minimal international requirements for protecting stateless individuals. Moreover, the US, although a signatory to the Refugee Protocol, has not incorporated into its law the provision of that instrument that would guarantee Palestinians recognition and protection as refugees. Palestinians, who comprise the largest stateless population in the world, are particularly affected by policies that fail to recognise the special rights of stateless persons.
The most recent deportations illustrate the legal limbo in which Palestinians as stateless persons and as refugees find themselves. The situation of the 15 Palestinians who were removed to the West Bank and Gaza in July is a typical example of the hardships Palestinians face. Because there is no internationally-recognised state of Palestine that would be obliged to accept Palestinians as its nationals, the US had to negotiate entry into the West Bank and Gaza with the states whose identity or travel documents the Palestinians held, and the state occupying the Palestinian areas, Israel. But because none of these states was legally obliged to guarantee entry, the Palestinians faced hours and hours of waiting, wrangling, and uncertainty before they were permitted to enter the West Bank and Gaza through either Jordan or Egypt. And they were fortunate -- compared, for example, to Mazen Al-Najjar, whose deportation saga is quite typical of the nightmare stateless Palestinians face anywhere in the world if they cannot obtain citizenship in the country where they are residing.
Mazen Al-Najjar, a Palestinian refugee born in Gaza, lived in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE in various temporary statuses until he entered the US on a student visa in 1981. He married Fedaa in the US -- also a Palestinian refugee who was born and raised in Saudi Arabia. Al-Najjar remained in the US on various statuses from 1981 until 1996, when the INS moved to deport him on the basis of a visa violation. He was then detained for three years and seven months on allegations of association with terrorism. No terrorism charges were ever formally brought, but he was detained and his removal sought on the basis of visa violations and evidence the INS refused to disclose. Al-Najjar was released in December 2000 when a federal court determined there were no basis for the terrorism allegations, and no justification for his detention, but was re-arrested in November 2001.
The US government sought to deport Al-Najjar to Egypt or the UAE, and his wife to Saudi Arabia, but none of these countries would accept them. As Palestinian refugees, both Mazen and Fedaa were ineligible for permanent status or citizenship in the Arab states where they had lived. Mazen remained in custody until he was finally deported in August 2002, supposedly to Bahrain, after 11 countries refused to accept him. While his plane was en route, Bahrain refused him admission, and his plane sat on the tarmac in Rome for 25 hours while the US sought another country that would accept him. He was then flown to Lebanon, which deported him a day later to an undisclosed country, while his wife and their three US citizen children remained in the US. Al- Najjar's situation is typical of how Palestinians are routinely treated in the US -- and in other states -- and reflects what the most recent group of Palestinians under deportation orders will face.
Mohamed Bachir and Farouk Abdul- Muhti are two Palestinians currently in US immigration detention who are suffering the legal limbo of their statelessness. They were both arrested in the post 11 September roundup and have been in detention since then, while US immigration authorities try to find a country that will accept them.
Bachir and Abdul-Muhti were lawful permanent residents in the US, both residing in the country for more than two decades. Compounding their problems, Bachir and Abdul-Muhti complain of abusive treatment in the detention facilities -- complaints made by many of the Arabs and Muslims detained after 11 September. In fact, the complaints of cruel, abusive treatment and serious denials of due process have been detailed in comprehensive reports issued by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and recently by the Department of Justice's own Office of the Inspector General.
Unfortunately, as a result of anti- Palestinian political bias in the US, anti- Arab and anti-Muslim stereotyping which was exacerbated by the 11 September events, and their unique legal limbo, Palestinians will continue to suffer the severest impact of post 11 September policies for the foreseeable future.
* The writer is associate professor at Boston University School of Law, teaching and writing in the fields of immigration, refugee and international human rights law. She is the author of numerous articles on the legal status of Palestinian refugees.
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 21 - 27 August 2003 (Issue No. 652)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/652/re5.htm