Girls in front of murals in Belfast. Anna & Michal/Flickr. Some rights reserved.On 13 July, a 21-year-old Afghan man by the name of Walli Ullah Safi was discovered on the side of the M7 road in Naas, Ireland. He spoke no English and had no knowledge of what country he was in. He ended up there after leaving his home country three months previously and allegedly travelling across Europe in a container as a stowaway. His ordeal was not to end at this point however; two weeks later, he would find himself imprisoned, taken hostage and subjected to brutal mental and physical violence. His experience is the product of an inefficient, ineffective, and inhumane Irish asylum system, and it embodies Europe’s collective failure to respect basic human rights in addressing the issues of migration and asylum.
After being found on the M7, Walli was arrested and charged on the grounds of being a ‘non-national’ without any documentation. He was subsequently sent to Cloverhill prison, before briefly being released and then immediately rearrested for the same offence. In spite of clearly being a candidate for the asylum process, no such application was made on his behalf, with authorities opting to treat him as a criminal rather than a potential refugee. In a radio interview, his solicitor argued that the Gardaí (Irish police) had no choice other than to place him in custody. He also stated that Walli’s personal story of how he ended up in Ireland was of no professional interest or value to him, unwittingly reflecting the degree of official concern with accommodating asylum seekers in Ireland.
Welcome to Ireland
Portobello area of Dublin. William Murphy/Flickr. Some rights reserved.On 30 July, a riot broke out in Cloverhill prison, during which Walli was viciously assaulted and taken hostage by prison inmates. His arm was broken and his face slashed with a make-shift knife during the attack. The day after this incident, a demonstration was organised by the Anti Racism Network Ireland outside the Department of Justice and Equality, demanding that Walli be immediately released from prison and placed within the asylum process. The demonstrators argued that he should never have been put in prison. Their demands were partially met, as Walli was then allowed to formally apply for asylum. He remained in a high support unit of Cloverfield until a court hearing on 5 August. He has since been granted bail and released.
