INS Threatens to Deport Palestinians Through Egypt and Jordan

The Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) is beginning to "repatriate" stateless Palestinians to the Gaza Strip, according to a Dec. 9 declaration by Detention and Deportation Officer Bret A. Bradford, who said the flights could start as early as Dec. 16.

"The INS, with assistance from the Department of State, recently obtained authorization from the Governments of Egypt and Israel to repatriate Palestinians who are from the Gaza Strip," wrote Bradford, who works in the Office of Detention and Removal Operations at INS headquarters in Washington, DC. "These Palestinians will be repatriated to the Gaza Strip via Egypt. The repatriation flight is tentatively scheduled for Dec. 16, 2002."

Bradford also said the Department of State "expects to receive the authorization in the near future" to repatriate, via Jordan, Palestinians who are from the West Bank. Jordan and Israel generally fail to provide travel papers for stateless Palestinians, making it difficult for the INS to deport them.

Bradford's declaration was submitted as part of the government's response to a habeas corpus petition for Farouk Abdel-Muhti, a Palestinian-born New York-area activist who has been in INS custody since April. The INS contends he is being held pending deportation.

In a phone conversation last week, Bradford said only one detainee from Gaza was scheduled to be on the deportation flight to Egypt. He indicated that the US government was planning to charter an airplane for the operation.

It not clear whether the flight took place on Dec. 16.

The INS does not give out statistics on the deportation of Palestinians. The INS said in August that it would deport a Palestinian detainee to Gaza via Egypt; the case received some media attention, but there seems to be no public record of how it ended.

The INS did succeed in removing Gaza-born Florida resident Mazen Al-Najjar in August, but not to Gaza. Instead, the INS flew Al- Najjar to Bahrain, which refused to admit him, and then to Lebanon, which expelled him in September, according to his family, who are not revealing his present location.

Contact: David L. Wilson, 212-674-9499
nicadlw@earthlink.net
freefarouk@yahoo.com