02 June 2005 - Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has condemned the treatment of a refugee from the Former Yugoslavia being held in a British deportation centre as “tantamount to torture” and demanded the Home Office halt deportation proceedings and grant the man permission to stay in the UK while his case is properly examined.

Alija Mustafic has been shunted around eight European countries since fleeing Bosnia in fear for his life in 1999, and is now being held at Colnbrook detention centre near Harmondsworth in West London. He has been held in solitary confinement and has been refused care for a psychiatric condition which has caused Mr Mustafic to harm himself and threaten suicide on several occasions. He has been on hunger strike and refusing medication for three weeks. He is drinking fluids, but only when they are offered: on one recent day he was not offered a drink – and therefore consumed nothing – for some ten hours.

Dr Lucas, who has written to immigration officers and Home Office ministers three times about the case without a satisfactory response, said: “Alija Mustafic is a former soldier who has witnessed unspeakable brutality during years of war and repression in his native Yugoslavia, eventually being forced to flee in fear of his very life.

“Since his arrival in Britain he has been treated with nothing but official contempt. Alija suffers from chronic Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as an independent psychiatrist has verified, and is physically and mentally very fragile after his six-year asylum ordeal – and three-week hunger strike.

“By placing him in solitary confinement, neglecting to give him proper care and failure to ensure he regularly receives adequate water, the Colnbrook staff have subjected him to a regime tantamount to torture.

“His deportation must be immediately halted until he has, at the very least, received proper care and treatment and is well enough to travel. Until then, he must be granted temporary leave to remain to enable him to receive psychiatric care whilst his case is examined in detail by the UK authorities.”

Dr Lucas became involved after she received an appeal from a case worker warning that Mr Mustafic may die in Home Office custody – or during deportation – unless he is released and given treatment immediately.

“The UK’s system for holding refugees in prison conditions prior to their deportation – regardless of their individual circumstances and care needs – is a national scandal. Unless there is a radical reform of the system which sees private firms profit from running human holding pens for asylum seekers, it will only be a matter of time before a Mr Mustafic – or someone like him – dies.”

ENDS