Redux
Every journey circles home
“You committed a crime, you will leave. If you want to stay here, you must behave.”
“But I have just bought a car. I have just paid two thousand euros as a deposit for a house. I also paid three thousand euros to a lawyer for the appeal in my asylum case. My wife is pregnant.”
“No. You will leave. With the others we have no solutions. With you, we do. You are a foreigner. You will be deported. Pack your things, we are leaving.”
This is the narrative we swallow whole. And, unfortunately, the media often do the same. It is a narrative reproduced without a second thought. Yet journalism is not meant to function as a government press office, simply republishing official statements. We should also pause to see the person behind the story.
We read about two cases. In Limassol, following a serious incident involving violence, injuries and grave criminal offences, ten foreign nationals were deported. In Larnaca, earlier, following another serious incident, international protection status was withdrawn from Palestinians. The status was withdrawn, but were they deported? And above all, is it legitimate and humane to send someone back to Gaza?
No one disputes that the management of migration and the protection of public safety and order are responsibilities of the state. However, deportation cannot be automatic. It cannot be based solely on a criminal conviction. What is required is a documented, individualised assessment, as mandated by European and international law. The withdrawal of international protection status is one thing. Deportation is another.
Even when protection status is withdrawn, the principle of non-refoulement still applies. This is an absolute principle which states that no one should be returned to a country where they risk arrest, torture or death. Asking whether someone can be sent back to Gaza is not a matter of “tough policy”. There is also the moral responsibility and humanitarian approach.
if only some country would accept them.
In the Limassol case, according to media sources, Cypriots were also involved. They are not deported. They will stay. The European Union citizen also involved also stays, because they are European and cannot be deported. As will countless others.
“I am sending you away because I can.” A brutally honest message. What a pity we cannot deport those who truly poison this society: the corrupt, the men who abuse their wives, the rapists, the hooligans who wreak havoc every weekend, the former officials who enriched themselves and embarrassed us internationally.
You could argue, of course, that nobody else wants them.