Nigeria/Europe: UN rapporteur finds systematic torture
01 July 2007
Nigerian asylum seekers are routinely depicted as undesired illegal immigrants in the western press, and criminalised by accusations ranging from internet fraud to mafia activities. Sometimes the racist media slur, supported by government claims of "bogus" asylum seekers, erupts in racist attacks, such as in Ireland in 2000 (see
Statewatch Vol. 10 no 2). In Austria police launched a series of raids against Africans in "Operation Spring", which used aggressive racist stereotyping depicting Nigerians, in particular, as drug dealers (
Statewatch Vol. 12 no 2). The claim that Nigerians run e-mail spam operations was used in Amsterdam in July as a justification to raid a concert, arresting 110 undocumented migrants, many if them Nigerians whose asylum application had been rejected. Manfred Nowak, Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, reminds Western governments in his latest report that Nigeria engages in systematic torture. On conclusion of his visit 4-10 March this year, where he carried out unannounced checks of prisons and detention facilities, Nowak said that more than half of Nigeria's prison population has never been convicted of any crime and that it is common for prisoners to wait five to 10 years to come to trial. Further, torture is being used for the purpose of extracting confessions or to obtain further information in relation to alleged crimes. The UN press release (HR/07/35, 12 March 2007) says:
"Methods of torture included: flogging with whips; beating with batons and machetes; shooting suspects in the foot; threatening a suspect with death and then shooting him with powder cartridges; suspension from the ceiling or metal rods in various positions; and being denied food, water and medical treatment. [...] the Special Rapporteur concludes that torture and ill-treatment is widespread in police custody; particularly systemic in the Criminal Investigation Departments. Torture is an intrinsic part of how law enforcement services operate within the country.
The Niger Delta conflict, one reason for many Nigerians to seek political asylum, merits special attention:
The increasing violence in the Niger Delta, with its roots in the Federal Government's decades-long neglect and marginalisation of people in the region, and the desperate poverty they face despite the enormous oil revenues emanating from there impacts upon the practice of torture and ill-treatment. The rise of serious violent crime and attacks by vigilante and criminal gangs against the local population and the oil companies operating there, and the resultant heavy response from security forces, as well as police paid by oil companies, invite allegations of torture and ill-treatment.
When questioned by the Austrian asylum rights group
Asylkoordination Österreich, if his recent report implied that forced deportation to Nigeria would constitute
refoulement, Nowak replied that even though most Nigerian asylum applications that were not related to the Niger Delta conflict might not constitute political asylum as defined under the Geneva Refugee Convention, forced returns of Nigerians who were convicted of drugs offenses, for example, would certainly have to be assessed individually for high risk of
refoulement, (i.e. that the person deported is in risk of being tortured in prison in Nigeria). Forced returns alert authorities in Nigeria to the deportee and put him in danger, according to
Asylkoordination.
The reports by the Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights council: http://www.ohchr.org/english/issues/torture/rapporteur/index.htm. The interview with Nowak appeared in Asyl Aktuell, issue 1/2007, Asylkoordination Österreich, Laudongasse 52/9, A-10180 Vienna.