‘Boys, Aged 11 And 13, Were Told To Urinate Into Bottles As GNIB Officers Looked On’

A young boy at an anti-deportation protest in Dublin in 2011

In a further instalment of her series on deportation in the Irish Times, journalist Lorna Siggins this morning writes about a charter flight which flew out of Dublin Airport on December 15, 2010, with 14 Nigerian men, eight Nigerian women, 12 Nigerian children and one child who was born in Ireland.

After leaving Dublin, the plane stopped in Athens where it was to collect 24 deportees from Greece and Austria before continuing to Lagos. However, 14 hours after it landed in Athens, it returned to Dublin with the deportees.

Ms Siggins reports that, after collecting testimonies from some of the asylum seekers who were on that flight, the Irish Refugee Council found officers of the Garda National Immigration Bureau had “conducted themselves in a manner which led to the inhumane and degrading treatment of some of those on the flight, contrary to article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights”.

From Ms Siggins’ report:

“A woman who was believed to have resisted her removal was handcuffed and appeared to the other deportees to be in a sedated state before being taken on the flight with her four-year-old daughter and two-year-old son. She was still in her night clothes, and one of her children was in pyjamas, with no jacket, say witnesses.”

“They described how four officers lifted the woman into the plane, accompanied by her bewildered and distressed small children. They described how she was placed in a seat, still handcuffed, and how restraints were secured around her chest and legs.”

 “The other passengers on the Boeing 767-300, including a man on crutches, were told they could not move from their seats without the permission of a GNIB officer. When using the toilet, they were told they could not close the door. One officer, visibly holding handcuffs according to several of the deportees, walked up and down the plane.”

“…For two hours, the plane sat on the runway [in Athens], and the passengers, including the children, were prevented from using toilets. One five-year-old boy among the group of Irish deportees wet himself. Two older boys, aged 11 and 13, were told to urinate into water bottles while GNIB officers looked on, according to the IRC testimonies. “

Deportees to Nigeria treated in ‘inhumane and degrading’ way (Lorna Siggins, Irish Times)

Deportees in their own words (Lorna Siggins, Irish Times)

Previously: Banishing Point

Pic: Anti Deportation Ireland