European Court of Human Rights and UN have imposed several bans on repatriation

The European Court of Human Rights and the United Nations’ Committee Against Torture have blocked several attempts by Finnish authorities to repatriate asylum seekers who had been tortured in their home countries.

The most recent such case was last week, when a pregnant woman who had fled the Democratic Republic of Congo after being tortured and raped was refused a residence permit in Finland.

The Refugee Advice Centre says that the situation has come to a head. Increasingly, Finnish officials, including the Supreme Administrative Court, have felt that traumatised victims of torture can be sent back to countries notorious for violating human rights, such as Iran or Congo.

The European Court of Human Rights and the Committee Against Torture have issued four bans on the implementation of a deportation order. Lawyers of the Finnish Refugee Advice Centre have said that in each of the cases there has been a clear danger that the victim would again face inhumane treatment.

The Finnish Immigration Service recently noted that torture on its own is not always a sufficient reason for asylum or a residence permit.

“The conditions of the home country of the applicant are taken into consideration”, says the Immigration Service. The Immigration Service points to situations in which conditions in the victim’s country of origin have improved since the person has left.

The Refugee Advice Centre and the Centre for Torture Survivors in Finland point out that some torture victims have been ordered to leave Finland even though officials have not been able to demonstrate that conditions in the country of origin actually had improved.

For instance, the human rights situation in Iran and the Democratic Republic of Congo has actually deteriorated in recent years.

According to Marjaana Laine, the leading lawyer of the Refugee Advice Centre, another problem is that officials do not always recognise victims of torture, and their special predicaments are not taken into consideration in decision-making.

“The gaps in our due process are leading to untenable situations. As the decision-making involves assessments of whether or not a person is in danger of being tortured or suffering some other inhumane treatment, it is imperative that not a single wrong decision should be made.”

Victims of torture need treatment in safe conditions. Recovery from serious traumas takes years.

In a joint statement, the Refugee Advice Centre and the Centre for Torture Survivors in Finland say that sending a victim of torture to the country where the torture took place often constitutes inhumane treatment in itself.

The issue of repatriating torture victims came up in a documentary film directed by Marvi Junkkonen on four victims of torture. The hour-long film was screened at the Docpoint film festival in Helsinki in January, and will be televised on YLE TV1 at 21:30 on Monday evening.
http://www.hs.fi/english/article/UN+.../1329103430026