Deportation

Not to be confused with extradition.

Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country.[1] Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation.[2] Deportation is an ancient practice: Khosrau I, Sassanid King of Persia, deported 292,000 citizens, slaves, and conquered people to the new city of Ctesiphon in 542 C.E..[3] England deported religious objectors and criminals to America in large numbers before 1776,[4] and transported them to Australia between 1788 and 1868.

Contents

Military occupation

Article 49 of Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the deportation of people into or out of occupied territory under belligerent military occupation:[5]

Individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory to the territory of the Occupying Power or to that of any other country, occupied or not, are prohibited, regardless of their motive. ... The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.

External deportation

All countries reserve the right of deportation of foreigners, even those who are longtime residents. In general, foreigners who have committed serious crimes, entered the country illegally, overstayed their visa, or otherwise lost their legal status to remain in the country may be administratively removed or deported.[6]

In many cases, deportation is generally done either by the government's executive apparatus, and as such is often subject to a simpler legal process (or none), with reduced or no right to trial, legal representation or appeal due to the subject's lack of citizenship. For example, in the 1930s, more stringent enforcement of immigration laws were ordered by the executive branch of the U.S. government which led to the removal of up to 2 million Mexican nationals from the United States.[7] In 1954, the executive branch of the U.S. government implemented Operation Wetback, a program created in response to public hysteria about immigration and immigrants.[8] Operation Wetback led to the deportation of nearly 1.3 million Mexicans from the United States.[9][10]

Already in natural law of the 18th century it was agreed upon that expulsion of a nation from the territory which it inhabits is not allowable.[11] Article 18 of the United Nations' Draft Code of Crimes Against the Peace and Security of Mankind declares "large scale" arbitrary or forcible deportation to be a crime against humanity.[12]

Deportation often requires a specific process that must be validated by a court or senior government official. It should therefore not be confused with administrative removal, which is the process of a country refusing to allow an individual to enter that country.[13]

Internal deportation

Deportation can also happen within a state, when (for example) an individual or a group of people is forcibly resettled to a different part of the country. If ethnic groups are affected by this, it may also be referred to as population transfer. The rationale is often that these groups might assist the enemy in war or insurrection. For example, the American state of Georgia deported 400 female mill workers during the Civil War on the suspicion they were Northern sympathizers.[14]

During World War II, Volga Germans, Chechens, Crimean Tatars and others in the Soviet Union were deported by Joseph Stalin (see Population transfer in the Soviet Union), with some estimating the number of deaths from the deportation to be as high as 1 in 3.[15][16] The European Parliament recognized this as an act of genocide on February 26, 2004.[17] After World War II approximately 50,000 Hungarians were deported from South Slovakia by Czechoslovak authorities to the Czech borderlands in order to alter the ethnic composition of South Slovakia.[18] Many Japanese and Japanese Americans on the West Coast, as well as other Italian American and German American families were forcibly resettled in internment camps inside the United States of America by President Franklin Roosevelt.[19]

In the 19th century, the federal government of the United States (particularly during the administration of President Andrew Jackson) deported numerous Native American tribes. The most infamous of these deportations became known as the Trail of Tears. American state and local authorities also practiced deportation of undesirables, criminals, union organizers, and others. In the late 19th and early 20th century, deportation of union members and labor leaders was not uncommon during strikes or labor disputes.[20] For an example, see the Bisbee Deportation.

Deportation in the Holocaust

Nazi policy deported homosexuals, Jews, Poles, and Roma from their normal places of residence to extermination camps or concentration camps set up at a considerable distance from their original residences. This was the policy known as the "Final Solution". The euphemism "deportation", occurring frequently in accounts of the Holocaust in various locations, thus means in effect "sent to their deaths" — as distinct from deportations in other times and places.

Soviet deportations

Deportations were used as a part of the Soviet Union's attempts, along with instituting the Russian Language as the only working language and other such tactics, at russification of its occupied territories (such as the Baltic nations). In this way areas were depopulated of their ethnic populations and repopulated with Russian nationals. The people deported were sent to remote, scarcely populated, resettlements or to GULAG labour camps. It has been estimated that, in their entirety, internal forced migrations affected some 6 million people.[21][22] Of these, some 1 to 1.5 million perished as a result.[23][24]

2010-ongoing French Romani 'repatriation'

In 2010 the French government commenced the programme of Roma deportation. Deportations have been heavily criticised by many bodies.[25] The Council of Europe has condemned the expulsion calling it "discriminatory" and "contrary to human dignity".[26] [27]

France continues to deport Roma. Those who leave France receive 300 euros and each Roma child is given 100 euros. The Roma deported are all asked to sign a declarations that they would never return to France.[28] On 9 August 2011, the city of Marseille in southern France forcibly evicted 100 Roma people via a municipal order who had settled in a makeshift camp near Porte d’Aix. 24 hours were given to residents of the camp to demolish their residences and leave.[29] Reportedly a chartered flight carrying approximately 150 Roma left the Lyon area on 20th September.[30] France’s goal for 2011 is to deport 30,000 Roma back to their home country.[31]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Generally, definitions of deportation make no distinction between official and unofficial acts, and apply equally to nationals and foreigners. See: Henckaerts, Mass Expulsion in Modern International Law and Practice, 1995, p. 4-5.
  2. ^ Some countries distinguish between deportation and penal transportation. For example, in the United States, "Strictly speaking, transportation, extradition, and deportation, although each has the effect of removing a person from the country, are different things, and have different purposes. Transportation is by way of punishment of one convicted of an offence against the laws of the country. Extradition is the surrender to another country of one accused of an offence against its laws, there to be tried, and, if found guilty, punished. Deportation is the removal of an alien out of the country, simply because his presence is deemed inconsistent with the public welfare and without any punishment being imposed or contemplated either under the laws of the country out of which he is sent or of those of the country to which he is taken." See: Fong Yue Ting v. United States, 149 U.S. 697, at 709 (1893).
  3. ^ Christensen, The Decline of Iranshahr: Irrigation and Environments in the History of the Middle East, 500 B.C. to A.D. 1500, 1993.
  4. ^ Daniels, Coming to America: A History of Immigration and Ethnicity in American Life, 2002
  5. ^ Convention (IV) relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War. Geneva, 12 August 1949.Commentary on Part III : Status and treatment of protected persons #Section III : Occupied territories Art. 49 by the ICRC
  6. ^ Henckaerts, Mass Expulsion in Modern International Law and Practice, 1995, p. 5; Forsythe and Lawson, Encyclopedia of Human Rights, 1996, p. 53-54.
  7. ^ McKay, "The Federal Deportation Campaign in Texas: Mexican Deportation from the Lower Rio Grande Valley During the Great Depression", Borderlands Journal, Fall 1981; Balderrama and Rodriguez, Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s, 1995; Valenciana, "Unconstitutional Deportation of Mexican Americans During the 1930s: A Family History and Oral History", Multicultural Education, Spring 2006.
  8. ^ See Albert G. Mata, "Operation Wetback: The Mass Deportation of Mexican Undocumented Workers in 1954 by Juan Ramon García", Contemporary Sociology, 1:5 (September 1983), p. 574 ("the widespread concern and hysteria about 'wetback inundation'..."); Bill Ong Hing, Defining America Through Immigration Policy, Temple University Press, 2004, p. 130. ISBN 1-59213-233-2 ("While Operation Wetback temporarily relieved national hysteria, criticism of the Bracero program mounted."); David G. Gutiérrez, Walls and Mirrors: Mexican Americans, Mexican Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity, University of California Press, 1995, p. 168. ISBN 0-520-20219-8 ("The situation was further complicated by the government's active collusion in perpetuating the political powerlessness of ethnic Mexicans by condoning the use of Mexican labor while simultaneously whipping up anti-Mexican hysteria against wetbacks."); Ian F. Haney López, Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice, new ed., Belknap Press, 2004, p. 83. ISBN 0-674-01629-7 ("...Operation Wetback revived Depression-era mass deportations. Responding to public hysteria about the "invasion" of the United States by "illegal aliens", this campaign targeted large Mexican communities such as East Los Angeles."); Jaime R. Aguila, "Book Reviews: Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s. By Francisco E. Balderrama and Raymond Rodríguez," Journal of San Diego History, 52:3-4 (Summer-Fall 2006), p. 197. ("Anti-immigrant hysteria contributed to the implementation of Operation Wetback in the mid 1950s...").
  9. ^ García, Juan Ramon. Operation Wetback: The Mass Deportation of Mexican Undocumented Workers in 1954. Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1980. ISBN 0-313-21353-4
  10. ^ Hing, Bill Ong. Defining America Through Immigration Policy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2004. ISBN 1-59213-232-4
  11. ^ See, e.g., Emerich de Vattel, The Law of Nations - Principles of the Law of Nature, Applied to the Conduct and Affairs of Nations and Sovereigns (translated from French), Philadelphia 1856 (Dublin 1792), Book II, § 90.
  12. ^ International Law Commission, Yearbook of the International Law Commission 1996: Report of the Commission to the General Assembly on the Work of Its 48th Session, 2000.
  13. ^ Fragomen and Bell, Immigration Fundamentals: A Guide to Law and Practice. New York: Practising Law Institute, 1996.
  14. ^ Dillman, The Roswell Mills and A Civil War Tragedy: Excerpts from Days Gone by in Alpharetta and Roswell, Georgia, 1996; Hitt, Charged with Treason: The Ordeal of 400 Mill Workers During Military Operations in Roswell, Georgia, 1864-1865, 1992.
  15. ^ In one estimate, based on a report by Lavrenti Beria to Joseph Stalin, 150,000 of 478,479 deported Ingush and Chechen people (or 31.3 percent) died within the first four years of the resettlement. See: Kleveman, Lutz. The New Great Game: Blood and Oil in Central Asia. Jackson, Tenn.: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2003. ISBN 0-87113-906-5. Another scholar puts the number of deaths at 22.7 percent: Extrapolating from NKVD records, 113,000 Ingush and Chechens died (3,000 before deportation, 10,000 during deportation, and 100,000 after resettlement) in the first three years of the resettlement out of 496,460 total deportees. See: Naimark, Norman M. Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001. ISBN 0-674-00994-0. A third source says a quarter of the 650,000 deported Chechens, Ingush, Karachais and Kalmyks died within four years of resettlement. See: Mawdsley, Evan. The Stalin Years: The Soviet Union 1929-1953. Manchester, England: Manchester University Press, 2003. ISBN 0-7190-6377-9. However, estimates of the number of deportees sometimes varies widely. Two scholars estimated the number of Chechen and Ingush deportees at 700,000, which would halve the percentage estimates of deaths. See: Fischer, Ruth and Leggett, John C. Stalin and German Communism: A Study in the Origins of the State Party. Edison, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2006. ISBN 0-87855-822-5
  16. ^ Conquest, Robert. The Nation Killers. New York: Macmillan, 1970. ISBN 0-333-10575-3
  17. ^ Campana, Aurélie. "Case Study: The Massive Deportation of the Chechen People: How and why Chechens were Deported". Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence. November 2007. Accessed August 11, 2008; Nurbiyev, Aslan. "Relocation of Chechen 'Genocide' Memorial Opens Wounds". Agence France Press. June 4, 2008; Jaimoukha, Amjad M. The Chechens: A Handbook. Florence, Ky.: Routledge, 2005. ISBN 0-415-32328-2.
  18. ^ J. Rieber, Alfred (2000). Forced Migration in Central and Eastern Europe, 1939-1950. Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 9780714651323. 
  19. ^ Kennedy, Freedom from Fear: The American People in Depression and War, 1929-1945, 1999.
  20. ^ Deportation is the term commonly used to depict ejecting an individual from a political or legal jurisdiction. It has been used by the press, legal community, historians and sociologists. See, variously, "Lewis Attacks Deportation of Leaders by West Virginia Authorities", New York Times, July 17, 1921; "The Law of Necessity As Applied in the Bisbee Deportation Case", Arizona Law Review, 1961; Martin, The Corpse On Boomerang Road: Telluride's War on Labor, 1899-1908, 2004; Silverberg, "Citizens' Committees: Their Role in Industrial Conflict", Public Opinion Quarterly, March 1941; Suggs, Colorado's War on Militant Unionism: James H. Peabody and the Western Federation of Miners, 1991; Lindquist and Fraser, "A Sociological Interpretation of the Bisbee Deportation", Pacific Historical Review, November 1968. Deportation has also been used to describe these events by Presidential commissions; see President's Mediation Commission, Report on the Bisbee Deportations, 1918. Even the U.S. Supreme Court has referred to forced internal removal as deportation; see United States v. Guest, 383 U.S. 745, (1966), Harlan, concurring in part and dissenting in part, at 766.
  21. ^ Pavel Polian. Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR. Central European University Press, 2004. p. 4. ISBN 9789639241688. 
  22. ^ Rosefielde, Steven (2009). Red Holocaust. Routledge. pp. 83. ISBN 978-0-415-77757-5. 
  23. ^ Naimark, Norman M. Stalin's Genocides (Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity). Princeton University Press, 2010. p. 131. ISBN 0-691-14784-1
  24. ^ Rosefielde, Steven (2009). Red Holocaust. Routledge. pp. 84. ISBN 978-0-415-77757-5. 
  25. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/15/france-defends-roma-crackdown
  26. ^ http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2011/11/20111110201357532347.html
  27. ^ http://www.coe.int/t/dghl/monitoring/socialcharter/Complaints/CC63Merits_en.pdf
  28. ^ "France resumes deportations of Roma people from Romania". Czech Press Agency (Romea.cz). 13/04/2010. http://www.romea.cz/english/index.php?detail=2007_2336&id=detail). Retrieved 25 November 2011. 
  29. ^ Ira, Kumaran (11 August 2011). "Marseille mayor orders mass expulsion of Roma camp". World Socialist Web Site (International Committee of the Fourth International (ICFI)). http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/aug2011/mars-a11.shtml. Retrieved 25 November 2011. 
  30. ^ "France: One Year On, New Abuses against Roma". Human Rights Watch. 28/09/2011. http://www.hrw.org/news/2011/09/29/france-one-year-new-abuses-against-roma. Retrieved 25 November 2011. 
  31. ^ Bran, Mirel (12 October 2011). "France's Immigration Chief Revisits the Roma Expulsion Issue, in Romania". Le Monde (Worldcrunch). http://www.worldcrunch.com/france-s-immigration-chief-revisits-roma-expulsion-issue-romania/3921. Retrieved 25 November 2011. 

References