"Illegal foreigners" in Estonia

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Date: Sat, 14 Oct 2000 12:18:59 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: "Illegal foreigners" in Estonia

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Andrei Arjupin <[email protected]>

"Illegal foreigners" in Estonia


The situation with illegal foreigners in Estonia
 
Introduction

As the result of the adoption of a new legislation concerning aliens
in 1993-1996, a new numerous group of residents started to form, which
dropped out of the legal regulation sphere.  Members of this group
were deprived of legal grounds to reside in Estonia and became persons
who live in Estonia illegally.  The number of so-called "illegals" is
still undefined and different estimations amount from 30 to 80
thousand people. 

It's possible to single out 4 groups of "illegals" on the basis of how
they lost their legal status:

In the first group there are people who had had permanent registration
of the former Estonian SSR, but could not apply for a residence permit
due to various reasons before the deadline prescribed by the Law on
Aliens (further - LA). The general part of these foreigners consists
of people, who have fixed sources of income. Among them are retired
persons, single mothers, disabled, families with many children, as
well as homeless persons.      

The second group consists of foreigners who were deprived by the
lawmaker of a possibility to participate in the statewide company on
legalization of non-citizens. These are foreigners who had not a
permanent registration (propiska) of the former Estonian SSR.
According to the LA, members of the mentioned group were not allowed
to apply for a residence permit inside the territory of Estonia. They
could do it only through the diplomatic representations of the
Republic of Estonia. But the majority was afraid to use this way due
to several reasons. For instance, an absence of a valid travel
document (whereas a residence permit stamp could be inserted only in a
valid document); unreasonably high taxes and fees for registration and
processing of the application; a threat to be expelled from the
country. Another point needed to be mentioned is that the LA did not
guarantee an issuance of a residence permit to such a foreigner.
Furthermore if this person was successful in lodging of the
application for a residence permit at the representations of the
Republic of Estonia, he/she was obliged to wait for a decision outside
of Estonia for minimum within 1,5 years.

Non-citizens, who were released from detention in the prison on
criminal conviction also belong to this group. As a rule, discharged
foreigner had no possibility to submit the correct application for a
residence being
in detention; therefore they became illegals' upon the release. These
people very often have problems with housing and valid identification
documents. The state practically is not in a position to render any
assistance to these people.  
        
At the same time, implementation of the annual immigration quota with
regard to foreigners, who apply for a residence aiming the settling
with the family, influences essentially the increasing amount of
"illegals". There are cases when a spouse or advanced in years parents
of a permanent resident of Estonia were refused in issuing residence
permit two and three times because the quota is full. Taking into
account this circumstance, family members of a person, constantly
residing in Estonia, arrive to the country on the basis of a visa and
remain to live here illegally. 

At last, the forth group of illegal aliens has started to arise since
1997. These are foreigners who sought political asylum in Estonia or
arrived on economic reasons and who had no relationships with Estonia
before their arrival to the country.  All they were refused in
granting the asylum. And after loosing their cases in the court (in
case the person applied for refugee status), these foreigners enlarge
the group of illegals in Estonia.

To conclude, now there are two categories of illegals in Estonia:
domestic illegals and external illegals and the legislation does not
distinguish between these groups.
 
The only way to solve the problem of both domestic and external
illegals is expulsion of an illegal from the territory of Estonia. 
The LA provided it since 1993, when the Law on Aliens had been
adopted. In the beginning of 1999, the Estonian Parliament issued the
Law on Obligation to Leave the Country and Prohibition to Entry. This
law regulates the technical terms of the expulsion procedure.
According to this law, if an expulsion decision has been made, but
however it is impossible to carry out this decision, such a foreigner
shall be placed to the expulsion camp. Besides, the expulsion decision
is made by the Administrative Court, and the foreigner expelled from
the country can appeal against this decision.


The expulsion camp

According to the Article 196 of the Code on Executive Proceeding,
decisions on the maintenance of persons to be expelled are executed in
a closed prison till construction and reception in operation of the
expulsion camps. Persons to be expelled can be also kept in custody,
but not longer than 10 day in succession.
 
The Estonian legislation provides that an alien can be placed in the
above-mentioned camp for not longer than two months. At the same time
if it is impossible to enforce expulsion within the term of detention
in an expulsion camp, an administrative court judge shall extend the
term of detention in the expulsion camp of a person to be expelled at
the request of the Citizenship and Migration Board until expulsion is
enforced or until the foreigner is released. 

It's necessary to notice that the prolongation can be carried out for
indefinitely long time because a number of foreigners detained in the
camp cannot be expelled under any circumstances. At the same time
Estonian legislation does not provide these persons with an
opportunity to obtain the legal basis for residing in Estonia. There
are persons in the camp, who have been brought up in children's houses
and therefore have not any relatives, especially in Estonia. Many of
them are not married to a permanent resident of Estonia; some of them
have not the place of residence. All above-mentioned conditions are
obligatory requirements for applying for a residence permit. The
absence of a legalization opportunity in Estonia means that the given
aliens are practically doomed to the permanent detention in the
expulsion camps. The last means "a life imprisonment" without any
court verdict.


Conditions of the detention in the Tallinn Expulsion Camp

As a result of the constant absence of funds for building the
expulsion camp in the state budget, persons to be expelled are kept
actually in the same conditions as persons serving a sentence for
criminal offences. According to the law the living conditions of the
foreigners which are kept in the camp, do not differ from the position
of people convicted for criminal offences. Persons to be expelled have
to implement the same requirements concerning personal hygiene and
health services, clothes and bed accessories, catering services and
housing requirements. 

Nowadays the expulsion camp is located at the Tallinn City Prison.
During the regular visits to this institution, it was uncovered that
the level of detention conditions of people which are kept in camp, is
lower than prescribed by law. 

Therefore, in practice people to be expelled cannot be outside of the
territory of the camp as the administration of a prison does not allow
to do it because of a fear of a foreigner's disappearance. Thus people
to be expelled are deprived of private freedom and cannot take any
urgent steps in order to solve their problems. 

Besides, the problem with reception and departure of mail was
revealed. Persons to be expelled have repeatedly complained that the
prison administration pays only for sending of correspondence directed
to official state departments. Letters to NGOs are considered as
private correspondence and the person to be expelled meets these
expenses. Cases when letters had not reached the addressee who is kept
in the camp, have been recorded. 

According to the Code on Executive Proceeding persons to be expelled
can not be involved in labour, except service works. Thus, persons who
are kept in the camp, have not an opportunity to earn money for post
charges, purchase of personal hygiene subjects and tobacco. 

At the same time, as it was noted, rooms of the camp are dirty and
unwell-looked. There are grilles at windows of inhabited rooms. People
to be expelled have not received practically hygiene means, soap,
toothbrushes, etc. Moreover, a person with mental problems, has been
kept among them for a long time (about 1 year).  

Especially it is necessary to mention a problem of absence of an
access to trial. Persons to be expelled have no opportunity to receive
the qualified legal aid: the lawyer, available in prison, has no
necessary knowledge in given area. 

The authorities on behalf of the Citizenship and Migration Board (CMB)
have not undertaken any measures for rendering assistance to them.
According to the statute duties, the CMB officials are obliged only to
ensure an
expulsion of aliens from the country. 

There were cases in the camp on the basis of which it is possible to
suppose that there is not any work with this category of people.
Therefore, with the help of the Legal Information Centre of Human
Rights (LICHR) some people who have been kept in the camp for a long
time, could address the petition to the Minister of Internal Affairs
for the filing of an application for a temporary residence permit as
an exception. Their applications have been sent to CMB according to
the legislation in force. The Minister refused to take proceedings
under these applications on the ground that the documents proving the
information presented in the petitions have not been enclosed. It is
necessary to notice that there is a special database with personal
cases on each foreigner to be expelled in the CMB, where all
documents, concerning this foreigner, are kept. Persons to be expelled
are deprived of a possibility to collect the proofs themselves because
they are in imprisonment and have no opportunity to leave the prison.


Conclusions

It seems to be clear that the main reasons of the above-mentioned
problem are an inadequate financing from the state budget and a full
absence of a due attention to the problem on the part of authorities.
Some Estonian NGOs who provide legal aid for these people, repeatedly
addressed the government to initiate amendments to the current
legislation. The question at issue - whether there is a need to
provide different legal regulations with regard to domestic illegals,
or treat them as "ordinary" illegal immigrants. To the moment, the
second position is, unfortunately, prevailing, what is unacceptable
in any circumstances.  


Andrei Arjupin 
The Legal Information Centre on Human Rights,
Tallinn, Estonia

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