WILLEMSTAD - Curaçao has been reprimanded by the judge in Willemstad because of the immigration detention. Yusmary, a Venezuelan woman, was imprisoned with criminally convicted women in SDKK prison, in violation of human rights regulations. She was immediately released by the judge.
During the hearing, the Minister of Justice stated that Yusmary was staying in a separate department for foreigners, but that turned out to be incorrect. Like so many other women from Venezuela, she was not placed in the immigration barracks, but in the women's wing of the SDKK prison among other convicted women serving their sentences for criminal activities.
Yusmary explained that there was no physical separation between her and the female detainees and that she feared for her physical integrity, not least because she was being threatened by one or more female detainees.
She also explained that the same regime applied to her as that applies to the criminally convicted female detainees. These foreigners have not been convicted by a judge and do not serve a prison sentence and should therefore not be treated as such under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
According to the judge, the Minister of Justice has insufficiently refuted the facts and circumstances presented by Yusmary. On the basis of Article 5 of the ECHR, a number of conditions apply that must be guaranteed when deciding whether or not to detain a foreign national.
One of those conditions is that the place where and the circumstances under which the detention order is carried out must be appropriate in the sense that it can be distinguished from criminal detention. Undergoing immigration detention in a penal prison under a prison regime is not permissible, according to the judge.
The Venezuelan woman was assisted by Human Rights Defense Curaçao, HRDC, which fights for human rights in Curaçao. The organization has been fighting for some time against the inhumane situation and treatment in the immigration shelter, which has now been closed.
HRDC chairman Ieteke Witteveen is pleased with the verdict, which she says opens the way to the release of the other five Venezuelan women imprisoned in the SDKK.