Captain of Almanara Deported

IMMIGRATION DEPORTS FAMILY DESPITE PLEA FOR HUMANITARIAN CONSIDERATION

The captain of the hapless cargo ship Al Manara, may have welcomed the Supreme Court judgment in his and his crews favour last week for unpaid wages but any jubilation was quickly dashed after the Immigration Department unceremoniously deported his wife and four children from Seychelles as undesirable immigrants despite his pleas for humanitarian considerations given his own ordeal and the state of affairs in his country, Iraq.

But while the Immigration authorities considered the captain’s wife and four children as undesirables, it was different for the two Somali pirates who were left stranded on the ship after their colleagues escaped when marines from the American warship USS Roosevelt came to rescue of the ship’s captain and his crew in open sea. While the two pirates were subdued by the American Marines and locked up in a cabin and the ship made its way to Seychelles territorial waters, here the immigration authorities treated them not only as desirable immigrants, but as bona fide refugees and even gave them food and afforded them protection.

Meanwhile, Captain Deea Abed Nashi, of the Al Manara, not only had to take the ship’s owner to court in Seychelles to try and recover unpaid wages on behalf of his crew as well as his own behalf (since the owner refused to honour his commitment, complaining that he had not ordered the vessel to come to Seychelles), he was also the subject of threats against his life by the ship owner in the process. The police even intervened and arrested a Seychellois who confessed that he had been recruited by the ship’s owner to “deal” with the Captain. The culprit, although apprehended, was allowed to go free by the police without charge, while the ship’s owner was adopting delaying tactics by changing lawyers and in one occasion a lawyer refused to take up the case on his behalf due to non-payment of fees.

For Captain Deea Abed Nashi, of the Al Manara ,an Iraqi, his ordeal seemed, however, to have to have been compounded when he tried to unite with his family after a long time at sea. In June, Captain Nashi, who had not seen his family for 18 months, arranged for his wife and four children to join him in Seychelles from Iraq after his brother, who lives in Canada, had told him of arrangements for him and his family to be able to join him there. To afford the airfare to Seychelles, Captain Nashi’s family had to sell their home in Iraq. But when the family arrived in Seychelles, the immigration authorities at the airport gave them just a one week visa telling them that their request for a visa extension would be favourably considered in the light of the circumstances. But that was not to be.

In pursuit of the his request for an extension to the visitor’s visa for his wife and children in early July, Captain Nashi, provided proof to the immigration authorities of his means to look after his family while in Seychelles during that time. The immigration authorities were also informed by the Captain’s lawyer that the case against the vessel’s owner was expected to finish by 30^th August as the Supreme Court had finally put paid to the ship owner’s legal shenanigans.

But the family’s pleas fell on deaf ears and the captain’s wife and four children were told they would be forcibly removed on July 29^th if they had not left voluntarily by then. What more, Emirates Airline – who flew the family to Seychelles – was told by officials that if they did not take back Mrs Nashi and her four children back to UAE, they would be held responsible for the consequences, a threat which the airline could not ignore.

In a letter addressed to the Principal Secretary in support of his request for a stay of execution against the deportation of his wife and four children back to UAE, the captain’s lawyer gave the authorities his personal undertaking on behalf of the family. He called on the immigration department to show compassion and understanding considering the fact that Iraq is virtually in the grip of civil war and that the family, with four young children, will be able to travel to Canada instead once the court case was over. All this cut little ice with the Principal Secretary in charge of immigration who was adamant the family had to go while the father could stay.

But, it appears, the deportation order was not executed when it was learnt that the family had visited the offices of this newspaper. This delay gave the lawyer another opportunity to plea from further consideration. But a in letter dated 8^th August the Immigration Department replied to the lawyer in the most impersonal manner worthy of a communist state bureaucracy “We have studied carefully the points you have raised in your letter regarding Mrs Narges Saied and her family and we sympathise fully with her regarding her predicaments (sic).” But the Department’s sympathy expressed in the letter was nothing less than hypocritical for in the next line the Principal Secretary went on to say, “However, we are not in a position to renew her visitor’s permits’ and that of her family”. Nothing more.

The next day, the family appealed to President Michel in a letter. The President of the Republic, under the law not only has the power to order a stay of execution but must personally review the decision of the officials of the immigration department. In their appeal, Mrs Narges Said and her children implored the President to consider their case on humanitarian grounds and not to inhumanely break up the family which had been traumatised already by the war in Iraq and their long separation, while at the same time promising to leave Seychelles by October to “seek refuge in Canada”.

President Michel it appears, misunderstood the nature of his responsibility under the law. Instead of considering the case, make a decision and have his office deal with the matter, he decided to send the family’s letter to him to the Principal Secretary of Immigration for her to decide, thereby making a mockery of the whole appeals process. And the process became more farcical when the Principal Secretary wrote the following Kafkaesque lines to the family “I acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 9^th August 2006 addressed to the President of the Republic appealing against our decision not to renew the visitor’s permits’ of the Saied family. I (sic) wish to inform you that the decision taken in our letter of 8^th august 2006 still stands”.

Not contended with deporting the Saied family, the authorities in Seychelles, it seemed, went out of their way to make life difficult for them on their journey. Before leaving Seychelles Captain Nashi said that he would like to take his family not to Iraq but to Damascus, Syria where Iraqi passport holders do not need visa and where they would seek refuge until they could make their way to Canada. What more the family did not want to go to the UAE since the ship’s owner resided there and that he had tried to harm the captain while he was in Seychelles.

Emirates Airline officials in Seychelles, however, at first refused to alter the wife and children’s airline tickets so they could go to Syria, as if they had been under orders to make sure that the family went to the UAE at all costs. Upon arrival at Dubai airport the family were held by the authorities on the strength (according to the captain in an email) of reports that the UAE authorities claimed came from Seychelles government, despite the fact they were only in transit for Syria. Fortunately for them, they sought and got a lot of sympathy and understanding from the Dubai authorities.

The role of the Principal Secretary of the Immigration Division and her conduct in this whole affair is not only despicable and deserves opprobrium, but warrants also a full, public and impartial inquiry, (especially as there are outstanding allegations of bribery for passports) if our country is to earn a reputation as a civilised and international law abiding state.

Despite our Christian heritage it appears we have now become a country devoid of compassion for those whose lives are in peril, while we harbour, tolerate and give citizenship to rogues and criminals with lots of money. They get the full and undivided attention of State House and even become a President’s neighbour.