Rowley’s broken promise

ALMOST three months after The Prime Minister agreed to the release of a Ghanaian man jailed for immigration problems, the man is still at the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC) in Santa Rosa.

Seeing no action taken for his release, even after the prime minister’s intervention, Samuel Asante’s attorneys filed a writ of habeas corpus which was granted by Justice Ricky Rahim and will be heard today in the Hall of Justice, Port of Spain.

On June 13, Rowley agreed to release the lone Ghanaian detained at the IDC after meeting with Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo who at the time was on an official state visit to TT.

Dr Rowley also announced a pardon for jailed Nigerians, similar to the amnesty granted to Venezuelans earlier that month. At a joint-media briefing with President Akufo-Addo, Rowley declared that Africans at the IDC would be allowed to register once there were no criminal matters against them. Rowley added there were a few Nigerians but only one Ghanian at the IDC but who were all detained for quite some time.

Asante has been at the IDC since 2017 and was expected to be deported on January 28, 2018. He has spent almost two years waiting to be sent back to Ghana. He registered as an asylum seeker with the UN Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in October 2018, and that was refused on March 22, this year, according to court documents filed on his behalf by attorneys Gerald Ramdeen, Umesh Maharaj and Dayadai Harripaul.

Asante, in pleading for his release, said he missed his wife and family in Trinidad and his detention had taken a toll on them.

He also said the conditions at the IDC were terrible as the toilets and showers did not work well and drinking water and toiletries were scarce.

“The place is very hot and dusty, we don’t have air conditioning, just some old vents.

“The place is too crowded and dirty. Food is disgusting and not enough.

“We at the centre get sick often and only get Panadol as medicine for every disease,” he said in an affidavit filed in support of his application.

However, on July 22, in response to a pre-action protocol letter, attorney Abdul Mohammed of the Immigration Division’s Enforcement Unit, told Asante’s attorneys that when tickets were purchased to send him back to Ghana on June 17, 2018, the process was frustrated by their client who refused to leave the IDC at the time.

They were also told that Asante could have been released on an order of supervision once a $20,000 security bond was paid by him. The sum is the cost to send Asante back to Ghana and the attorneys were told that those terms to facilitate his conditional release were still available to him once he paid the bond.

“Once payment of that deposit/bond is received, the release of your client will be immediately facilitated. The payment of a security bond to facilitate release is in accordance with the division’s regular policy in dealing with Asylum Seekers who have been ordered deported prior to their application,” the division’s attorney advised.